The Jackhammer of New Reality

It looks like my idea of writing in my B&B room is out the window. The jackhammer started at 7:41 this morning. On to Plan B, whatever that is.

12:37pm--Actually, the hammering stopped just before 8:00am and I managed to get some writing done on the Philadelphia workingmen's movement this morning. Not much, but it was a start.

I'd like the hammering more if it weren't literally in my back yard, but I like it anyway because jackhammering is the sound of economic vitality--of new things being built and old buildings, roads, and sidewalks being torn down to make way for them. I've always admired construction because of my grandfather's work as a bricklayer, but I really learned to see construction as an indicator of vitality when I first came to Philadelphia in 1983. Although this sometimes sets me at odds with my anti-development friends, I follow Marx in generally seeing the creative destructiveness of capitalism as a good thing.