View From a Height

Deconstructing a Sukkah

Ah, at long last, the silence is broken. So, after graduation, I thought, I'll have all this free time! Right. For the moment, that free time is being used catching up on 3 years of neglected household chores. Like finishing the garage (pictures to follow).

And then, there's the beginning of the back yard's Long March back from xeriscaping nightmare to plush green grass & garden. Step 1: clear out all the accumulated detritus so I can actually get to work on it, killing weeds, planting grass, maybe tilling a small area for tomatoes and corn. The first thing is to get rid of an excess wardrobe I had put shelves in and was using as an ersatz toolchest. (Thus the gorilla shelving in the garage.)

The second thing is getting rid of the old solid wood sukkah. Each panel was a 4x8 piece of plywood nailed onto an 8-frame of 2x4s. One of those panels had a swinging door. Before I replaced it with a tarp-and-tube design, it was warm, cheerful, homey, and solid. It also took a three-many crew four hours to put up.

The problem with building something to last is that it takes a professional wrecking crew to break it down. I figured I could just use the hand-held circular saw to cut all the panels in half, and put the stuff out for large-item pickup. Except that, according to the lady on the phone, some contractors had the same idea over the years, and the remnants of brick walls and A-frames had gotten a little too much to handle, so now they aren't taking "building materials."

"But I'm not a contractor."

"They damage our trucks."

"But you'll take a large wooden bureau I'm going to put out."

"Yes."

"And it's wood, too. And the drywall remnants won't damage the truck. They crumble into dust."

"We provide this service as a courtesy..."

"It's not a courtesy. I'm paying for it."

"I'll be happy to give you the names of services to come haul your stuff away."

At least she didn't lecture me about how she lives in Aurora and pays taxes and doesn't even get these services and I'm not the only one who pays taxes and the service is spread all over Denver and I ought to appreciate what I do get. Although she did start down the Dark Path of the Philosophy of Law, and why some bad apples had ruined everything for the rest of us.

Since the last time I had a public servant talk to me as though I were in the 4th grade was when actually was in the 4th grade, I figured that now would be a good time to take up her offer to have the regional supervisor call me so we could get this cleared up.

We'll see. The alternative may be to pry the thing apart piece by piece and start hiding the remnants in the bottom of the large garbage can.