Sweet Gummi Mary! I've had it with this highway department! The bridge is still not resurfaced, even though there has been intermittent work and lane closures.
Wednesday, the local paper online said that our lettered county highway would be undergoing resurfacing on THURSDAY, from 7:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. And that local residents might not want to wash their cars, since there would be gravel and oil spread on the road to seal it. So not an actual application of blacktop, but a cheaper and quicker way to seal "low traffic" roads. The article described the process. Gave the roads where the work would start and end.
"What am I supposed to do? I don't care about getting T-Hoe dirty, but I don't want to get in that traffic mess. I guess I'll go down the back road and come out over behind the local junior college. That's close to the bank. I can go there first on my errands."
"Well, you don't have to go all the way there. Other roads branch off."
"You know I'll get lost! I'll just stick with the way I know."
"Yeah. You can do that."
So I did. Went the very back way, and did my errands, and came back the regular way, since by then it was 3:45, and I thought they might be getting done and cleaning up.
I was kind of right. THERE WAS NO RESURFACING ON THE WHOLE WAY HOME! No sign of resurfacing. The bridge was still not done, either!
I wasted my whole detour for NOTHING! Those dang liars! I imagine they'll pop up on Friday, when I least expect it, and wreak havoc with my travel plans.
Oh, and while I was standing at the left lottery machine in Country Mart, scanning in two $3 winners so I could buy more scratchers... a lady came through the door with her kid in the cart with the built-on plastic car, and ALMOST HIT ME!
I know it's hard to see when you come through the door. Especially when pushing an extra-long cart with a car on the front. So I didn't make a scene. Didn't even huff or shoot her the stink-eye. But she said to her companion:
"Oh, no! I almost hit that lady. I'm so sorry!"
"It's okay. Not a big deal. But I was almost hit by a CAR, heh, heh!"
I can forgive that cart-car driver way easier than the highway department.
Gravel and oil??? what kind of "fix" is that? it would take the same amount of time to lay blacktop!
ReplyDeletecar-cart? what next? We never had those when our kids were little and they all turned out just fine.
River,
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have those carts either. Maybe I can get a picture of one, since I go past them every day on the way to the scratcher machine.
Supposedly that gravel and oil seal the surface of the road, and keep it from getting potholes during the winter. I don't understand the gravel part. It will just bounce off as traffic drives over it. Maybe it's a way to disperse the oil? When people get their blacktop driveways sealed, that oil is in liquid form, and a guy spreads it on with a tool that reminds me of a push broom. I suppose they can't have highway workers doing that over a larger section of the road. Anyhoo... they said this process costs 1/3 of what a new layer of blacktop would cost. Some of that is probably the labor to roll out and smooth the blacktop with a giant machine.