Progress...thy name is road construction.
I have lived on the same road just over forty years. It's taken almost fifty years for the city to change the end of our road.
You may be thinking, "What's the big deal? It's just a little road construction." That's true--the city reconfigured the intersection connecting our little street to a larger street. And unless you live here or have frequently visited those of us who do, I can understand that line of thinking. It probably doesn't seem that big a deal.
But, for the rest of us, it was a glorious change.
When we first moved to this street, the road was not even paved--it was just dirt. It took a few years before they paved it for the first time. We live on a hill so the intersection had to take a few things into consideration. They had to connect basically a flat road to a road on an angle. Another interesting fact about the road (and the hill...) was back then, the gutters were used to irrigate yards and gardens.
We now have pressurized irrigation coming through pipes under the ground. Back in the 1960s and 1970s our watering system was much more basic. We had a small reservoir higher up on the hill and they would release water that flowed through backyards, front yards, and down the gutters. Each person had a specific time to water their property and they would manually divert the water to their lawns and gardens. Since this antiquated way to irrigate is over, the water no longer needs to flow down the street--it can go into a storm drain.
What does all this have to why the change on our street is so great? It's because we no longer have to slow down when we turn onto the street, nor does it dig and destroy the undercarriage of our vehicles. It's a smooth a turn as smooth as a buttered skillet. The funny thing is, since I've lived here for so long--longer than any other my neighbors--I was fine with slowing down. It was no big deal.
Turns out, I was wrong. It's so much better now. And it only took forty-six years to happen.
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