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White Season, Orange Season
R. Alex Whitlock
Linus has joked about the two seasons up here: Winter & Construction. Right now we're moving past the White Season and fast into the Orange Season.
The most amazing thing to me about the construction up here is how quickly they dismantle roads and put them back together. In Houston, they started construction on an intersection near an apartment a couple months after I moved in. Eighteen months later when I moved out they were still working on it.
Since they only get a few months of the year to work on the roads here, they tend to go all out. Whereas the aforementioned intersection remained open the whole time, here entire roads are closed for weeks at a time. Last year Main Street was closed for at least three months. The businesses languished and one or two it seems went under.
Right now the main drag (4th/5th/Yellowstone Ave., where my apartment is) is detoured at the main East-West street in town. It's an odd feeling to be getting in your car and not knowing how you're going to get where you're going, as the detours (and their locations) seem to change on a daily basis as they screech everything to a grinding halt to get it all done as quickly as possible and reopened so they can bring some other part of town to a grinding halt before White Season starts again.
Observations
Alex,
There are a few factors.
#1 - seasonal is the big one. When you KNOW that you have to get done before the ground freezes, actually doing the work becomes a priority.
#2 - Houston's gotten quite a bit better about it since Mayor White took office; he's not so content about letting the construction companies slide and run over on their time estimates. "Out-of-town" Brown was horrid about that if you'll remember.
#3 - Where you are, they can't just cut the lanes in half and do half at a time. Therefore, they have to do it QUICK.
Working construction is like nothing else. We bust our asses - balls to the wall, so to speak - for six and a half months, working ridiculous hours, traveling all over hell, just exhausted most of the time - and then, all of a sudden, the first good frost is in and we are done for the season.
Be patient with your friendly neighborhood flaggers, people!
Tami,
So what do you end up doing in the winter?
I usually end up taking a few college courses to try and finish my degree eventually. We happened to have a little bit of work this winter, so I didn't get to go to school, but usually, we just try to go get other temp jobs or save enough money to make it through. The guys on the crew actually have work through the winter in the shop or whatever, but flaggers have it a little rougher.
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