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curse you, Delaware
Apr. 17th, 2006 03:44 amIf I believed in Satan, I'd swear that Delaware is evidence of his work. If not his headquarters, at least his factory outlet, based on the amount of misery it causes in human lives. Certainly it is a blight on the interstate highway system. Apart from the toll - and to anyone who lives somewhere between Virginia and New York, I don't have to say anything more to evoke a picture there - was the fact that on a holiday evening, when thousands of people are returning from visiting relatives, every single mile of interstate highway in Delaware except the last half mile before the toll booths had at least one lane closed, and there were 2 lanes closed (narrowing traffic going south down to 1 lane) in a couple of places. It took us a little more than an hour to go a little less than 23 miles, despite great weather and no accidents and not even any state troopers with radar guns.
I'll grant you, that's not the most egregious waste of the interstate I've ever seen. A few years ago, we drove from Austin to my brother's house in Omaha for Thanksgiving. Coming back Sunday night, we and a few tens of thousands of college students also returning from Thanksgiving with family, to school in Austin, traffic came to a dead halt about 9 miles north of Hillsboro, Hillsboro being where I35E and I35W merge back together to become just I35. It took about 6 hours to get from 9 miles north of Hillsboro , to past the merge point.
And one year in the 70's, I was one of the tens of thousands of college students going from Boston back to New York for Thanksgiving; that Thursday morning, it took about 4 hours to get through the last 2 miles of highway in the Bronx and on over the bridge.
Nonetheless, this past evening's traffic was annoying, even if it wasn't up to those standards. Perhaps because gas is nearly $3 a gallon, one feels more sharply the wasting away of ounces and cups and pints of gas as one idles and stops and lurches a few hundred feet and stops again.
Despite the above peeve, we had a nice day. One can't call it a quiet, peaceful day, not with my sister having 5 kids, but it was fun. We had a big Sunday afternoon dinner, both preceded and followed by lots of conversation and assorted crafts and stuff. I taught Ian how to use a rigid heddle loom, which he caught onto right away, and by two hours later had pretty much outgrown the small "toy" (but real in its pieces and methods) loom that made little 4" squares (to be used as coasters, or sewn together by hand to make bigger pieces), completing a second square in about 1/4 the time the first one took him, including doing the warping by himself. So I imagine that by next weekend everyone in the family will have all the coasters they can possibly use, and I'd better find an excuse for a gift occasion soon to give him a larger loom that will challenge him for a bit longer. (Everyone in the extended family on out to grandparents and cousins now has potholders from the potholder loom I gave him at Christmas!!) I'm going to see if I can find an 18" rigid heddle loom that actually has rollers so that one can set up several YARDS of warp at one go, and make scarves and table runners and place mats and shawls; normally those cost close to $100 but I will scout for a used one. Ah, I love passing along my bad habits and expensive hobbies to the next generation!
I'll grant you, that's not the most egregious waste of the interstate I've ever seen. A few years ago, we drove from Austin to my brother's house in Omaha for Thanksgiving. Coming back Sunday night, we and a few tens of thousands of college students also returning from Thanksgiving with family, to school in Austin, traffic came to a dead halt about 9 miles north of Hillsboro, Hillsboro being where I35E and I35W merge back together to become just I35. It took about 6 hours to get from 9 miles north of Hillsboro , to past the merge point.
And one year in the 70's, I was one of the tens of thousands of college students going from Boston back to New York for Thanksgiving; that Thursday morning, it took about 4 hours to get through the last 2 miles of highway in the Bronx and on over the bridge.
Nonetheless, this past evening's traffic was annoying, even if it wasn't up to those standards. Perhaps because gas is nearly $3 a gallon, one feels more sharply the wasting away of ounces and cups and pints of gas as one idles and stops and lurches a few hundred feet and stops again.
Despite the above peeve, we had a nice day. One can't call it a quiet, peaceful day, not with my sister having 5 kids, but it was fun. We had a big Sunday afternoon dinner, both preceded and followed by lots of conversation and assorted crafts and stuff. I taught Ian how to use a rigid heddle loom, which he caught onto right away, and by two hours later had pretty much outgrown the small "toy" (but real in its pieces and methods) loom that made little 4" squares (to be used as coasters, or sewn together by hand to make bigger pieces), completing a second square in about 1/4 the time the first one took him, including doing the warping by himself. So I imagine that by next weekend everyone in the family will have all the coasters they can possibly use, and I'd better find an excuse for a gift occasion soon to give him a larger loom that will challenge him for a bit longer. (Everyone in the extended family on out to grandparents and cousins now has potholders from the potholder loom I gave him at Christmas!!) I'm going to see if I can find an 18" rigid heddle loom that actually has rollers so that one can set up several YARDS of warp at one go, and make scarves and table runners and place mats and shawls; normally those cost close to $100 but I will scout for a used one. Ah, I love passing along my bad habits and expensive hobbies to the next generation!
