Laborers in Logroño

I can be quite sure that I've poked fun at the labor system in Spain - 1 man working 2 men watching... That one. Well, you would think that with 2 "highly qualified" supervisors to watch one man working while they "take care" of the situation, that things shouldn't really go awry. Right? Wrong.

Marta and I were sitting calmly on a bench on the main street in Logroño the other day, enjoying the beautiful sunny weather that was having my roll my sleeves up to ward off agricultural workers tan. The facades of the two buildings in front of us were under "obras" or repairs, and were outfitted with an exoskeleton of metal supports that allowed for a gigantic pneumatic lift to be installed for the workers to do their best. It looked professional.. Now, I'm a fairly high-strung guy right? While maybe it would seem impolite to not have my eyes trained on her, but mid-story it was worth the distraction as I looked up randomly, and saw a 5 foot steel pole fly off of the lift from 8 stories up, towards us. Being a master of physics, I knew that it was not going to hit us, but was worried about a streetlight next to us. The pole was possibly going to interact with it, and then inexplicably bounce of at any angle and with wild "Final Destination" characteristics set to maim. I grabbed Marta and moved over on the bench, watching as the pole slammed into the ground about 1.5 yards from us, bounced up, and landed in the grass next to us.

You would think that the workers would have yelled HEADS UP, or something like that in Spanish, but I can safely say that at least 4  seconds passed until they peeked their heads over the edge of the lift to see what had even happened. No one was hurt, but we were jostled a bit by it, and some frantic Spanish women walking next to us came and professed their fear to us. Lesson learned, don't sit on benches next to any form of construction.