A fly on the wall.

I get to the job site around 7am. My job site is normally a medium to large middle-upper to upper class development community. We'd just call it a "buried job" because all cable work (electric, tv, phone, etc.) is run underground.

The people who live in these suburban utopias usually do not even notice me. Unless I'm obstructing part of their everyday routine. Most of these folk would argue their individuality for hours while standing in front of their pre-fab homes that look exactly like their neighboring communities, so its pretty easy to obstruct someone's daily routine. However, normally, I'm just a mundane distraction. A necessary evil, perhaps.

I wonder somedays, though, if these residents know what they miss throughout the day. I get to see them leave for work and come home 8-9 hours later. I see to kids go off to school. Their spouses or partners coming and going shopping. I see wives walking around the block with other wives and wonder if even their most intimate partners ever shared this moment. The trashmen come and clean up waste, the leaf collection comes unnoticed. The mail is delivered. The electric company meter readers go passing between yards.

I watch sprinkler systems go off and on. Hear a dog barking in a kitchen. Witness a school bus dropping of kids to empty homes. I see a hundred things that most people would think about unless they were absent, like breath. I watch what makes their communities function according to plan.

Maybe it all means nothing, but its how I get through my day.