Our city services in
Willow Glen
(San Jose, CA) have been painting up our streets lately. For blocks
around, the asphalt is now decorated with new cryptic spray paint
markings (in white, yellow, orange, red): marking water lines, gas lines,
and the underground locations of all of the other infrastructure bits
below the street. I suspect they will be digging holes in the street soon…
On our block, the water company is trying to figure out where their “blow
off valve” is at the end of the water main line. Our house was built on
the
Guadalupe River in 1930. The street dead ends into our front walk.
Before our neighborhood of houses was built, local historians tell us
that there was a chicken farm and a
prickly pear cactus
farm on the property. We ran into the remaining foundations of the barn
several feet underground when we put in our new fence last year.
Since our house is the end of the line, the water company thinks their
valve is somewhere in our front yard – under the lawn or under my
agave plants. They
have been back several times to look. Two days ago, John talked with some
water company employees who were waving electronics over our front yard.
He then watched them poke long probes into the dirt. Finally, he saw
one of them trying to find stuff underground with a copper
dowsing rod.
If high tech does not work, try paranormal powers!
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