Sewerage & Water Board equipment and workers amassed themselves on our street earlier today. They sat there for a while, and then began digging up the water line to our neighbors' yard. We have a cobblestoned street, so it entailed ripping out a number of stones as well as loads of concrete and dirt. They were in the thick of it from just after 1 PM, when the rains finally died down. When I went to pick up my son from school around 3 PM, I was greeted with the sight of the S & WB guys standing around and having a giggle at the two-story geyser of water they had just unleashed from their excavations. I asked them if they were looking for black gold, and they laughed some more.

Oh, boy.

When I returned with my son, we parked on a side street and walked carefully around the hole, the stones, and the dirt, and my son was fascinated. The only thing that could tear him away from the sight was the promise of viewing the Curious George DVD for the umpteenth time. Thankfully, the geyser was no more. Doubly thankfully, our water pressure was still good. I guess if our water hose is disconnected from our neighbors' house, we can conclude that their water pressure has been fixed.

The street is another matter.

What gives me hope is that the monster crater by Children's Hospital has finally been filled in and paved over, and if the city can do that, then by God, they most certainly can get to the spot in our street. Sane people would think so, anyway. But they'd probably be in error.

If the city DOT really had its heads screwed on correctly, they'd rip out all the cobblestones and just pave the street. But then they'd get flak from all these folks in their renovated mansions saying the construction crews would contribute greatly to shaking up the foundations of their homes. And I hate to say it, but I now would probably be one of those people. Sitting in my house and websurfing earlier today, I could feel the house shake every time the shovel of the S & WB backhoe made contact with the ground. And I'm on the second floor of one of the old New Orleans houses - 12 foot ceilings, huge windows, anyone who's seen it knows it. So my house has been around for over a hundred years - Katrina showed everyone how easy it can be for that kind of history to be wiped off the earth.

So I guess the cobblestoned street, and the weirdly scored concrete patches in it from filled-in excavations, is here to stay.

I need to set up an online betting pool now as to when the hole on our street will be paved over. The countdown begins today...