Commutation

 It's Infrastructure Week!

Or at least it was. Or will be soon. Or something like that. It is very difficult for me to tell. I have read the news about the trillion dollars that will soon be finding its way to the crumbling bridges and wobbly electrical grid. I am excited to think that things in my corner of these United States might get a taste of some of that money. 

Because my bicycle commute every day is horrible. The street on which I live is okay. A year ago the neighbor across the street bought himself some hot patch asphalt at Home Depot and proceeded to go up and down the block patching holes. If I was just going down the street, I would be fine, but that block drops me off in the middle of a hellscape that no man, beast or SUV can survive. And yet, every morning I go out and defy the odds by dodging and weaving my way up the hill and over to the next block. And the next. Each one has layers of absently placed pavement, intended at some point to fix the prior fix that had been laid down prior. This gives the whole avenue the look of a side of a volcano after hundreds of years of eruptions and lava pouring down and cooling. Add to this barely passable trek a series of sewer projects that somehow managed to find the path that I had chosen as the shortest distance between myself and my school. These have been progressing at a snail's pace over the past year, which makes me believe that there must have been some infrastructure cash laying around before this big windfall, since they have been going along, day after day, week after week, digging up chunks of street and leaving great metal plates to cover them overnight and into the early morning. When I am riding to work. 

Sections of this project have been completed, and one glorious hundred yard stretch is smooth and flat and painted and is a pleasure to pedal across. Until I reach the next phase that seems to be stuck on not quite done. Meanwhile, the holes that have had their metal plates removed receive the most casual covering with lumps that make it preferable to dodge than to simply roll across. I await the day when Infrastructure Week comes to a close and Straight Shot To Work Day begins. 

I know. Many of you would suggest taking alternate routes in the case of such tomfoolery. But I am a creature of habit, and frankly frightened by what evil fate might await me if I switched to one block over. I might never be seen again. Besides, I am getting older and I need to keep my senses sharp.