Beneath the Wraps

              I haven't seen construction since coming to Oregon with Denise back in June.  Haven't missed any of the polycones or orange signs or slowed traffic.                The schools were closed and so I didn't count on the typical 3:00 pm traffic.  I thought it odd, as I was driving yesterday, that traffic seemed to slow down to a halt.  Oh, construction.  Haven't missed it at all.               After five months of an orange-free road, I have seen signs of construction in this November bleak.  Really?  They couldn't have picked a time with better element conditions?  I'm not complaining.  Waiting for halted traffic in Myrtle Creek and Tri-City is nothing compared to Salt Lake.        ...

          I generally drop Jenna off at school a half hour before she needs to be there.   I also arrive on the lot before all other cars so as to not fight school traffic.   Jenna has always taken her time walking to school or across the field.   When I am the driver who is picking her up, I welcome her dawdling.   In first grade we were always the last car to leave the parking lot. I HATE school traffic.                   Kayla was looking for a sitter for her two and as Jenna’s school is the same distance from their house as it is from my own,   I figured I could watch them at Kayla’s house and then pick up Jenna.   I should have left her house the minute that Kayla came home.           It’s been four years since I had lived in that same neighborhood and wasn’t taking into account that the school in that area lets out...

When winter feels like it’s over and the roads are no longer covered by snow and the days have been warm, UDOT jumps all over it and starts setting up poly cones and orange barrels all over the valley – particularly on roads that were under construction JUST A YEAR AGO.  That’s how one can tell it’s spring in Utah – or at least it’s supposed to be. It is also a sign of agonizing weather to come.  (Could it be that Mother Nature isn’t fond of construction either) because just as soon as those roads are closed and the walls are set up, we have rain, we have wind, we have sun – and what is at least one day in April without snow?  Sometimes we get all the elements in one day.  It’s bad enough having to deal with the detour signs and the non-moving traffic.  April’s weather prolongs the construction by at least a month. But I don’t know that UDOT had anything to do with the light snow sent our way this morning.  I think my family is responsible...

          Jenna’s favorite color used to be pink.  But now she says that it’s orange.  I like orange sunset and flowers such as poppies and marigolds.  I suppose when it’s from Mother Nature’s paint brush. Then it appeals to me – but I don’t care for orange clothing and I get irked by orange barrels, polycones and flashing barricades & signs because it’s a message implying delayed traffic, construction ahead and so forth.           It’s not so bad when it doesn’t become a permanent part of the road – but day after day, month after month, even year after year in the same spot – which is usually the case.           Both my mom and I live off main and always busy streets.  The street near where she lives has been under construction for at least eight months to two years and doesn’t appear that it will be finished any tim...

          I’m walking my dog at the park when two geese started honking.  Highness hadn’t even noticed them until they brought it to his attention that they were there.  So of course he starts yowling and the geese took off and started circling the park – honking loudly as they flew.           Now since I don’t speak geese, I don’t know if they were warning other birds that there was a crazy dog in the park or if they were announcing: “No – it doesn’t appear to be springtime over here, either.” Or if they were just lost from their flock and asking others to make themselves known. It’s supposed to be springtime huh?  According to the goose’s bodily calendar, it is time to end their southern vacation and get back to work in the north.  But the elements just don’t jive with their predictions.  And it’s frustrating. But geese are not the only ones to suffer here.  I...