Menolyrical - Final Friday (Not So) Fiction

OKAY - AS MISS CECELIA POINTS OUT IN COMMENTS - I'M A WEEK AHEAD... SO SUE ME... YOU ALL GO AHEAD WITH FFF NEXT FRIDAY!!!

This is the last Friday of the month and time to play with picture/s and words... though today's offering is something non-fiction and which one couldn't make up...

This week, there were happenings in the street.

Parking has always been at a premium in our wee street. Even in the six years of my residence in the Hutch, the traffic flow has increased by as much as double (in my own unmeasured estimation). What is more, it seems to be the chosen route for major traffic such as delivery trucks, builders' vans and emergency vehicles.

It has to be admitted that British streets in general, but Dunoon streets definitely, are not really built for purpose. They are all a couple of centuries old, at least.

When one side becomes a parking lot, single file traffic is all that is left, and for larger vehicles, that will include mounting the pavement (sidewalk).

Double yellows... forget it. (For the unfamiliar, double yellow lines along a kerb means 'no parking at all'. ) They're just decoration, right? Anyway, on the corners around here, they have become faded to the point of being almost non-existent. Therefore the highway code warning of parking not closer than one car's length to any corner is also ignored.

Anyhoo. This week. Lots of clattering and banging and voices. Here are four blokes, no less, set to repaint the faded lines. Not just repaint them, it turns out, but extend them up the street!!! Some residents came out to have a 'discussion'. I think the general trend of response was 'eat yer bunnet'.

What interested me was that it required so many and that this was carried out in such a manual way.

I think the orange 'suit' was head-of-gang. It took about twenty minutes to 'cook' the paint.
The bloke far left appears to be in charge of the rolls of  - vinyl??? -
measuring it out and for this first lot, placing in the pot.
Then there was the 'fireman' with the nozzle of flame.
Then the 'potman' who was watching the hubble and bubble very closely.

Potman was in charge of pouring the liquified concoction into the line-pot,
 which was under the control of 'vinyl man'.
I would like to point out at this stage, this was happening on one of the days
when the temperature was not the balmy double figures we have been getting.
In fact, it was closer to freezing. Thus the liquid soon became unliquid again.

This resulted in the 'spontaneous application'.
Vinyl Man got down on all fours. Pot Man trailed the vinyl.
Head-of gang, headed. What I didn't manage to photograph was him also
getting down on all fours, with a ruler - yes, a ruler -
and ensuring the vinyl was an exact distance from the kerb.

Then along came Fire Man with his sword of fire and just blasted it directly to the tarmac!
On more than one occasion, that nozzle and various hands or legs came perilously close.

In the back of their truck. Lots of rolls of 'vinyl', a plentiful supply of gas for cooking it...
and a can one couldn't help thinking would have better served had it been filled
and by their sides, as that nozzle singed all it contacted!

Not only did they cover the pre-existing markings, but they proceeded to extend the zone by yet another car's length. This happened on three of the four corners of the junction. There are indications on the side underneath the Hutch's window that there may be a little bit more to do. All in all, these four blokes were at the task over the course of two days.

The kicker came a few days later when another large truck appeared, twice the size of this one and considerably more hi-tech looking. It had one operator who attended to the fourth corner. First erasing what was left of the old lines, then "zip!", laying the new lines. Been and done in less than half an hour!!!

Anyhoo... now all the cars are back, parking where they always parked. Yellow lines be darned.

I may never find out if fines and infringement notices are ever delivered!!!