Damn Nail

This past summer our building undertook some renovations. They redid everyone's decks. It was a nice thought - and we were all very excited for how nice they would look later.

As most of you know - we had a great deal of rain this summer - so the decks took a great deal longer than anticipated. We were not allowed to use our barbeques or be out on the decks for most of the summer.

It sucked.

What sucked even more was that the company hired to do the work - was - well - shoddy. They were messy - and would leave things strewn around. They left their tools all over the place. They used our plugs until the breaker would switch - leaving us in the dark. And most importantly - they left pieces of the old deck everywhere.

At one point they brought in a skid to load up all the debris. But for some unknown reason - they left many large 2x4's sitting in the pathway from our street to the backalley. It is all still there. The wood still has all the nails from when it was a deck. Noone thought to hammer those down - we will in a no-children building. Who cares if one lands on a rusty nail?

This pathway is my route to our Garbage Bin. I routinely walk through there - careful of the wood with nails sticking out. Yesterday I was making my way out - it was dark and the area is not well lit. I tried to be very careful - but was surprised to find that someone had place a large sheet of plywood over all the 2x4's. The first one threw me off. So I was watching carefully for another one. I glimpsed a sight of it - and stepped onto it - and in the process stepped fully onto a 2x4 with a nail stick straight up. The nail went through my shoe and into my foot about 1/4 of an inch.

Needless to say I screamed.

Then I finished taking the garbage out (I am still a thoughtful and considerate neighbour).

Seriously. They finished the deck in August. It is now the END of February.