the telltale stake-driving-machine

June 2nd, 2006 by Jeff Leave a reply »

Right now a construction crew is pounding sewer pipes into the ground using a tall machine. The machine lifts up the pipe and lowers it over the previous pipe, and then presses down a bit to make a secure fit. Then an internal “hammer” pounds the whole 15 meter segment in with a series of hard whacks, like driving a tent stake. Not only is this rather loud, but it makes the entire ground shake.

The last piece they drove in made a resounding “GONG” each time the hammer struck, like a clock tower that had gone haywire. One hundred twenty-nine o’clock. The whole teacher’s room staff dropped what they were doing to go look out the window. I think we’re all really bored.

2 comments

  1. Diana Perry says:

    Hey you. I hope everything is going well in Japan. I haven’t heard from you in so long and I miss you. I just moved into my own place and so much has happened since you last saw me. I think you would barely recognize me. Write me sometime and we’ll catch up.

    D.

  2. jen says:

    “EARTHQUAKE!” Oh, no wait…it’s just the ginormous clock outside! The CLOCK OF ETERNITY! LOL

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This work by Jeff Hiner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported.