I have been working out of my house for the past few weeks, and like the promises of AT&T the entire internet has gotten to be very sporadic in reception. I was mumbling to myself when I was asked to go to the store for something, so I turned onto Fifth Street and was flabbergasted.
Fifth Street is one of the most traveled streets in Gonzales. On a school day, no one wants to drive from one side of town to the other. Buses and school children are always happy about coming out of school and crossing the street at almost any break in traffic.
I will say having the Public Works staff out in the morning directing traffic has helped minimize any potential problems. I sometimes think the only thing keeping the students from getting hit is because there are so many cars that they can’t go very fast.
As a matter of fact, when I was asked to go to the store, I thought I would be late for dinner. Once I turned to the right, I was assaulted by white stripes and planter boxes. It was as if someone that had a lot of time on their hands decided that we needed more and bigger bike lanes.
When I queried this individual, I pointed out that we already had bike lanes. This person replied, “Oh, but you need wider lanes and the planter boxes can slow down traffic and….” I stopped this person and asked if they had ever seen lots of bikes on the streets of Gonzales. “Well, no, but this has been proven to slow the traffic flow.”
“Slow the traffic flow?!” I exclaimed. “Have you ever been here when school is out and the kids flood the sidewalks and the buses stop traffic for a while until all the children are safe? You have taken the busiest street in town and cut the amount of traffic that can co-exist in half. Who in the world made the decision and where are the studies that may prove to you that this striping is not really needed?”
Well, I have been informed that TAMC (Transportation Agency for Monterey County) and Caltrans received a grant to analyze Safe Routes to School. This is a three-month pilot program, which will end at the end of June.
I had spent a good amount of the day before down in King City. If you haven’t been there in a while, I’ll try to explain their traffic problems. There are traffic cones that start about a half mile out of town on Highway 101 and clog traffic until you clear the First Street overpass. I’m almost positive that the person that decided that we need to reduce the traffic on Fifth Street also told them to snarl traffic through King City.
So, if you think the program in Gonzales works, let the City Council know. If you don’t think it works, let the City Council know. A survey will come out soon. So stay tuned.
On the third day, He rose from earth and went to be with His Father. I hope you had a great Easter. Even from my young days as a student in the third grade, I can remember that this was a holiday of sorts. I didn’t like that it fell on a Sunday because I didn’t get the day off from school. It seemed to me that if you are going to have a holiday, it should at least be held on a day where you would normally be going to school.
It just didn’t seem like a holiday to a 9-year-old boy that had a lot of things to do. The cow needed to be milked and the chickens needed to lose a member of their family so mom could cook a little protein for her four boys. I just remember that my mother would spend the Friday before Easter cooking black-eyed beans…
Come to think about it, my mom cooked black-eyed beans for just about any reason. It was something different for dinner and a good-sized pot of beans would last about three days. We would be welcome to go into the kitchen and fill our bowl and crumble up some cornbread for just about any meal of the day.
There were days when my mom took the older boys to pick beans or something to earn a few dollars for school clothes. When that happened she would make ham sandwiches for everyone in the family. It may not have been cordon bleu, but you couldn’t tell the difference.
Yesterday was a day that was just a little like a day out of school. There was more food than could be consumed in one setting, and what food there was. There were salads that you could eat and not gain weight. Creampuffs that you could eat and gain weight, along with other delectable goodies that made you think of the best dinner you ever had. We didn’t have fried chicken, but we had chicken wings cooked to perfection as only a Swiss Miss like Lorraine’s mother could cook them.
I would like to tell you that my sons and I helped Lorraine and Tara put the spread out. However, telling a story that tall probably wouldn’t be the best idea this close to the resurrection of Christ. I’m sure that we would have been forgiven, but sometimes you just don’t want to take a chance.
Hopefully you had a warm family get-together and we all remember why we have this day. With what all is happening in our world today, just having the day to ourselves was a pretty nice feeling. Tara brought along her extended family, which has become part of ours that don’t get over to this side of the mountains to our east very often. The sound of laughter echoed through the house.
God Bless.
