Thursday, August 18, 2011

Crane party!

We were invited to a ‘crane party’ tonight – a party to say good-bye to a gigantic crane (the construction apparatus not the bird) that’s been towering above our friends’ house since November. A new condo building is being constructed almost directly behind their house, so a crane has been swinging over their block for the past 9 months, hoisting construction materials and even porta-potties. Apparently some merlins nested temporarily in the structure.

Our friends have a little girl very close in age to Miya who has been a big fan of this crane. Hard to beat having your own backyard construction site when you’re a toddler. But the crane is being dismantled on Saturday, so tonight our hosts gave a tribute to the crane and the entertainment it brought to their lives. We raised glasses and sippy cups in a toast. One guest composed an impromptu song (‘The crane is going away’ sung to the tune of ‘The farmer in the dell’).

At the end of the party – after delicious rice rolls, roasted veggies, corn on the cob, salads and sangria – we had a crane parade to the foot of the crane – which basically was some tired toddlers racing each other down the sidewalk, but calling it a parade was a good way to transition from party to going-home-time.

Funny story about this crane (I’ll get some details wrong since this is a story passed on to me and I don’t know those involved directly)... Because this crane was so big, the radius of its arm extended beyond the construction site. The development company informed the homeowners who lived directly behind the site that the crane would be operating above their houses, and to compensate them for their inconvenience, offered some amount like $500.

This worked on all the neighbours except for one very savvy individual who knew his rights to the vertical space directly above his home and refused to grant permission for the company to trespass this unless they gave him something like $20,000 (I wish I could remember the actual amounts). The company baulked of course, but ended up having to give in. Gotta love a story where the little guy wins!

1 comment:

  1. Counterpoint: Assuming 200 units, that $20,000 cost each of the condo buyers an extra $100. The little guy didn't win, he extorted money from his new neighbours by being a twit. I would much prefer to celebrate the family that saw this as a cool thing to view for the summer, and turned it into a wonderful experience.

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