Happy New Year!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

Today’s blog topic is about the road in front of my house. I may have talked about ‘my’ road in a prior blog, if so, I will beg your forbearance and offer the paltry excuse that I have little else to talk about during these days of C0VID 19 since my now normal routine precludes doing much else. The other excuse I can offer is that I just returned from my morning walk along the road and I am pleased to announce that my road has finally returned to its winter-time state of fewer bumps and potholes.

Until today, the road has been in its typical condition of crumbling asphalt, numerous potholes, and bumps due to the haphazard tossing of cold patch in some of the most offensive voids in an otherwise faulty excuse for a paved road. It is not that I haven’t done my part in complaining about the condition of the largest section of Curnalia Trail. Just last year I made an appearance before two of our august township boards to voice my request that something must be done soon. I thought I had made a noteworthy presentation what with my PowerPoint show containing numerous pictures of potholes annotated with a trembling voice and the show of real tears forming. Both township boards gave me a small measure of thanks for my story and offered the hope that perhaps this year the road could be repaired. Now that this year has passed, I must conclude that my presentation was not as effective as I would have hoped.

But things are better now that the winter--time state of the road-belies the bumps and ineffective patches because of ice cover. Yes, ice cover. All the potholes are full, the patches covered, and the crumbling, rough spots of the road are covered with a smooth layer of ice. Today was the first day that the ice has been smooth, and our Road Commission has not yet disturbed this state-of-affairs. Hopefully, their maintenance crews will not foul things up now that the road is smooth again after waiting an entire summer and fall for an end to the bone-jarring trips in my car and need for hiking with a constant eye on the road.

Our fall weather has been insufficient until today to provide effective ice cover. We have had plenty of cold weather but the combination of snow cover and benign neglect by the Road Commission has been missing. What has happened up until now is that the snow has been thick enough to make ice, but the road commission has been too prompt in scraping the road, thus leaving a too-thin layer of snow for making a sufficient thickness of ice that will resist the damage from heavy cars and pick-ups traveling on the road. The remedy was a dump of six or more inches of snow followed by several days of road traffic without the Road Commission making sparks with their plows. Instead, the crews seem to have returned to their normal practice of having the plow blades set too high for fear of disturbing the patchwork, thus leaving a layer of snow remaining on the road. In fact, their blades help make a more uniform layer of snow that promptly turns to ice. I am certain that is not their intent, but it is the outcome of their maintenance and our road traffic.

Oh! The Missus just told me that the freezing rain that we had recently may have also helped make the road icy.

The road crews do their work religiously - the bad road is not for lack of trying. Today, for example, a plow truck came down the road with his blade down, carrying a load of sand that he distributed on the top of the otherwise pristine snow that had just become ice. We got a little more snow after the plow came through, making our road even more slippery with the too-little distribution of sand containing either no salt or woefully too little, to make any difference at all. Driving on our road now is unquestionably riskier and walking on such a surface can be downright foolhardy for those of us who don’t know enough to stay home.

None of this is news to us who have lived here for some time (The Missus and I have now marked off 18 years in our retirement home). In that time, she and I have learned a few things about negotiating the ice-road hazard. We have outfitted our boots with wires and/or cleats that will perforate the ice and provide nearly slip-free performance. This knowledge has been hard won. In my case, it developed only after several years of falls and slips during morning outings on the road when my bones were a little more flexible than they are today.

So, here we are today with things looking a little more hopeful at this time of year what with the COVID 19 vaccine on the way and a new President who promises to see that it is put in our arms soon. Perhaps our nation will finally learn how to manage COVID 19 as has the Chinese city of Wuhan who now have had no COVID 19 cases for the past 200 days. It seems amazing that they are so much smarter than us!