Dale got a text just after dinner tonight about an issue at work so we jumped in the Equinox and headed to the port. My experiences on industrial worksites have been limited to dropping Dale off or picking him up, and usually that was done in the parking lots by the entry gates. Today I can say I was on the docks, right in the middle of it all.

To start with, I was just parked outside Dale’s office. I stayed in the car while he went in. Then he and a foreman came out and jumped into a truck and drove off. I wasn’t concerned, I just continued doing the sudoku on my iPad. The docks are very noisy, with the sounds of heavy equipment and seagulls. If you know me, you’ll know which sound most concerned me; the  seagulls. They were everywhere! Thank goodness I was in the car! I tried to ignore them but you know how it is, you can’t really ignore something that concerns and repulses you. It’s like that sore tooth that your tongue can’t leave alone. So I watched the seagulls, my mouth curved in disgust, my eyes narrowed.  Mostly the seagulls were fighting over food, that was what was making them noisy. Two of them were sitting on the cab of a truck beside me screaming at each other. One would fly down into the back of the truck, picking at the garbage there while the other harassed him. If the first one found something, the other one would fight him for it. They were the most disgusting and noisy when they were scrambling on the ground after scraps. There is something horrible about seagulls when they walk, with their necks and beaks extended; it makes me cringe just writing about it. One of them found something and swallowed it. The other one jumped on him and shoved its beak down his throat. I looked away only to see two seagulls fornicating on a cement block. Great, making more disgusting seagulls, like there aren’t already too many.

The other noise at the dock is of heavy equipment. The large container pickers are like overgrown forklifts. Their engines rev when they move and they beep when they back up. I saw a herd of them moving down the docks, like dinosaurs with their heads uplifted, looking ahead for danger or food. They had just gone out of sight when Dale and the foreman returned. Dale hopped out of the truck and opened my door. He had to do some work in his office so Frank, the foreman, was going to take me on a tour around the docks. That meant I had to get out. And there were seagulls. So I tucked my head down and ran. The guys had hard hats on, I didn’t. I was clearly vulnerable to the inevitable seagull attack. I got in the truck with my heart pounding and pulled on my seatbelt. Frank introduced himself and we took off.

He was a great tour guide. He explained how all of the equipment worked and what it did. We drove to where the large gantry cranes were and he explained them. There wasn’t a ship in to load or unload but I could see the equipment ready, high above the dock, extending out over the water. It was a quiet night because there were no ships. I’m sure if they were busy with ships it wouldn’t be safe for me to be there. Frank drove me back to Dale’s office and suggested that I go in, as Dale would be busy for a while. Again, I tucked my head and with my heart pounding ran. The walkway to his office was covered but there feathers all over the ground. Dale said that was because the seagulls fight overhead. Yup, great.

Dale made some phone calls, wrote up some notes and about half an hour later we left. I was glad to see where he worked. Now I can picture it when he talks about his day but I don’t ever need to go back. The reason? One word; seagulls.