Sparkly Clean...Concrete

My first year at this University, there was a parking lot across the street from my current office building and although it was off limits to students during the day, it so happened that most of my classes that first year were at night, so I got to park in that lot. Then, after that first semester, they closed off the lot with the intention of building a new math and statistics building instead. After 2 years of dust and noise and dust and dump trucks--and, oh, did I mention the dust?--the building is finally complete. Actually, I'm very impressed that it only took 2 years because usually, doesn't it take longer than that just to fix a pothole in the road? And they managed to build an entire building?

Anyway, they opened what's left of the parking lot last week. Of course, now that I'm only here during the daytime hours, I don't get to park there anymore, but it does make the walk to my lot a little bit faster. So this morning, I was walking through the lot and noticed that there were three fire engines sitting there. Immediately, I assumed there must have been some kind of catastrophe, so I squinted my eyes and craned my neck to try to get a glimpse of what was happening. And as it turns out, what was happening was that they were washing the parking lot. Using fire trucks with their hoses connected to hydrants. In a city where there is a drought every. single. summer and so far this year, our rainfall levels are already below average.

So...either washing parking lots is now considered part of the fire department's jurisdiction or the University has invested in fire trucks of its own. Either way, I stand by my previous belief that this city is CRAZY.