TRUCKS TRUCKS TRUCKS

The Edina Public Works department had an open house this evening... AND IT WAS AWESOME. WE brought the kids and walked around the garage - they had set up displays and opened up the equipment to view. Helpful guys were everywhere and boy they WANTED to tell us about the cool things they do.

One guy caught me and told me all about the HVAC system they put into City Hall. Three boilers, rotating each day, with zone temp controls for each room, recovered energy on the outflow, realtime digital monitoring of temperatures anywhere, bar graphs showing temps and airflows for the past five days... little animated fans in their graphics.

Another guy gave me the "key" to what those sprayed markings mean when they're about to tear up the ground (Red is electrical, Orange is cable/phone, Blue is water, Green is sewer, and Yellow is GAS) I guess I could have just found that out from Wikipedia but it was more fun to be told. He also told me about the way that lights change when the police are coming: It's a 120hz strobe light that triggers it. When you see a SOLID light above the streetlamps, it means the emergency vehicle is behind or in front of you. If it's blinking, it means the vehicle will be CROSSING in front of you.

The gentleman in front of the automatic pothole filler truck (a huge unit with a telescoping arm on the front) said he was picked for the job because he's a mechanic (and can fix the arm when needed) AND a videogame nut (because it's all run with a joystick in the cab). This arm - he positions it over the hole, uses high pressure air to clear out the debris, then fills the hole with a mixture of crushed granite and oil, then dusts it with rock, rolls over it and moves on. He can fill holes up to 8" deep, and it takes all of 90 sec to finish one. He can do TWICE the work of a two man crew...

The guy with the Sewer Vacuum truck did patiently explain to a kid in a Star Wars shirt that no, those aren't missiles on the side of the truck, just vacuum canisters.

The man in front of the 18' wide mower confessed that when he started out, it sure seemed massive, but now he knows the boundaries pretty well... but was thrown off when they got a new 24' wide mower... it's like learning all over again. He hand sharpens all of the blades once a week, by the way - the thing cost over $80k, and if you don't take good care of it, it's going to cost a lot more than THAT.

The road painting truck was there to see: There's a tank for yellow paint, white paint, and GLASS: Yes, when they're painting, they blast glass dust into the paint, so that it refracts with your headlights.

I was a good dad, by the way, and Bella was by my side as I learned ALL of this essential knowledge, and I fed it all back to her. She seemed pretty interested, though by the end, all she wanted was an ice cream treat. I will also mention that Pamela was with Isaac while I was absorbing all of this VITAL INFORMATION... but there were moms of other boys we knew, so they were standing around chatting.

There is one excellent picture I'll need to upload: Bella in the back of a police cruiser. Hopefully that will be the last time....

We went off to Big Bowl for food, and Bella ate two kid's entrees... so boy, her patience must have really been at the end! I'm sure, however, that as the years go on, she will remember the day we all saw the giant trucks. At least I will.