The Obstacle Course

There’s nothing as refreshing as coming home from a nearly 12-hour day to discover that the four-lane roadway in front of your house has been reduced to just two lanes. And, it’s the two nearest your house. So, while it’s tough to back out of the driveway under ordinary circumstances, it’s going to be nearly impossible to do anytime between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. most days when the largest volume of traffic is generally on the road.

And, it would even be hard to pull in from the front. (Even with a spare lane, most people get right on my a**, often a little too close, though I have a blinker on and am clearly slowing down to enter my driveway.)

The construction zone starts just past the major intersection near my house. It goes on for another three blocks. I saw some of these signs as I made my way up the other main drag to pull Ladybird into her spot in the back section of the driveway. I had stopped at the edge of the driveway, thankfully, and popped the trunk to haul my grass to the dump. (For whatever reason, Mr. C. didn’t show up on Monday.) By the time I got back outside after dumping my stuff and changing my clothes, my clippings were gone. (Mr. C. had apparently loaded them and hauled them away in the interim!)

I had to do some running anyway so I used the extra 15 feet of space to pull Pearl out the backway. This was extra convenient because when I pulled back in, Pearl was facing the roadway. That made it so that we can drive directly onto the road, no backing required. This was good because the mother had an errand to run yesterday. With Ladybird absent from the drive, she was able to put Pearl back in place, face forward.

I’m not sure how long this is going to go on for. It’s going to be d*mned inconvenient for however long it is. And I forgot to mention, these went up Tuesday. Thanks to at least some rain every day, they've yet to be out there to start. Judging from this morning's weather, today isn't looking hopeful either.

Granted, the roadway just beyond my driveway really needs to be fixed as does most of the rest of the road, but it’s going to be a pain to deal with to be sure. (Not to mention all that construction dirt blowing on the house and the cars. We normally wash the house every Memorial Day weekend, but I think that will get postponed this year anyway. More on that in another post.)

What’s a little unnerving is that these barriers haven’t slowed 90 percent of the traffic down. People continue to barrel through. (The speed limit is 35 but I’m betting the average speed is closer to 45. And that’s average. There is a lot of traffic that regularly goes 50mph+.)

This will be the first weekend with the obstacle course in place. We’ll see just how many of the barriers are still in place by Monday.