While I waited for the bus this morning, I was enraptured by the antics of two electricians attempting to untangle five colored wires across the lawn of the northeast corner of Millennium Park.
At first, they lazily attempted to untangle the wires from their respective distances, about twenty feet. This only resulted in the wires becoming more tangled and made it look like an imaginary friend was jump-roping.
The next attempt was carefully planned out over their walkie-talkies. There was a lot of pointing and gesturing. This time, the one with the more tangled end tried pulling his wires apart while the man on the other end sat still and waited.
Finally, the two men met in the middle and discussed a more logical solution. The older of the two settled in at the tangled end. The younger man took the reigns (or in this case, the wires) and walked the length of them until the most tangled spot which was somewhere in the middle.
They navigated each wire carefully. The younger man planted his foot on the wires before the tangled point and pulled the red toward him until it came free. Then the blue and white wires, which were wound in a tight spiral, he separated. Finally, the green and yellow fell apart and he was able to resume collecting the wires together in a bunch and handed them off to the older man.
I wished I could have watched them all day. What were the wires meant for? What exactly were they doing with them? Was it all a show? Did they realize I was watching them?
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