Golf Road has been under major construction all summer long. For a while, it was drilling, pouring, seaming, and smoothing, but now the project has moved on to it's final phase: blacktopping.

As the workers complete one a lane at a time, they block off that lane for a stretch of about 10 miles. During the earlier phases, they used large cylinders, sand-filled pylons, spaced about 5 feet apart. These prevented people from driving into the gaping square holes in the pavement. During the current phase, they're using simple orange rubber cones.

Last night I saw a few people driving in the blocked lane, and I was in a line of about 2 miles in length, and it hadn't moved recently. So I cheated, and as I zoomed past the huge line through the perfectly-good-but-blocked-off lane, and others began to do the same. We reached the end of construction far more quickly than if we'd behaved.

Fast forward to this morning. I tried the same stunt, as did several other cars, but they put cones in the middle of the blocked off lane, 2 right in the middle. I got back into the long line, but I saw people running over the cones, squashing them flat into modern art.

I think that's going a little too far.

I saw construction workers dumping loose blacktop stone into the weeds and grass next to the street. I also noticed that they have women hold the slow/stop signs and have the men do the actual work, shovelling today. I don't know if it's a cushy union thing, a sexist thing, or an appeal to male drivers' basest instincts, but it seems to work. We sure don't obey the cones.
10:53 AM - Bottle Rocket Fire Alarm