upon returning, and turning...

... onto my street from a few days away, I discovered a huge lighted, blinking, unavoidable sign at the intersection just past the traffic light. That very plainly, in large letters stated I should expect delays and be prepared for a detour Aug. 6 -8. My first thought was: ?????

With trepidation, expecting the asphalt to suddenly open into a yawing abyss, I cautiously continued towards home, weary from my travels, but anxious to finally alight. Nothing amiss as I turned into the familiar driveway, so I then I thought: 'hmmm....'  as I did not fall into any quicksand, bear-traps or unfortunate circumstances.

As I sit here typing, looking out the window to the north, there are two huge piles of fill material. One is gravel, the other a small mountain of bright orange clay. Both piles are at least the size of a dump truck. I read a notice amongst the stacked up emails as I was deleting this morning providing information about the upcoming road closure. There is an underground/under street drainage culvert that has been problematic for years about two blocks north of our house.  The two huge loads of gravel and fill have been dumped on the empty lot on the corner. Awaiting use as the city digs up what is apparently an undersized culvert. To replace with one more adequately sized for runoff.  The city has patched, altered, cemented, graveled, diverted water runoff for years in futile attempts to resolve the problem... which as you can imagine, only occurs during heavy rains.

The notice via email from the city indicates they will take drastic measures; deciding to wait till schools are back in session to massively disrupt traffic, creating monumental problems with carpools and school busses. This could have been done any time in the past three months when both the nearby schools were closed for summer. So the planners cleverly choose to wait until students start back to classes to create major turmoil for commuters, bus drivers, carpool moms, and me, who will be unable to get out of the driveway due to clogged up traffic for several days. Already not looking forward to schools starting: the elementary a half mile away at the end of the street, and the middle a about a mile away on the street that has to feed into the one we live on. Oh, well. I will need to plan to leave home earlier to make a mad dash out of the driveway....