I Guess Things Have Changed...

Years ago I participated in a Ragnar Relay race. This required I get in shape. I had a couple of weeks to prepare and I did the best I could. Instead of joining a gym or running on a treadmill, I chose to go to a local high school on my way home from work and run on their track. It took me back to my high school days.

I wasn't the best runner in high school, but I did enjoy it. I like running on a track because I can gage how fast I'm going and how far I've gone. It's simple--four laps, pretty much a mile. Months ago I had access to an indoor track, but I did not renew my contract so I stopped using it. I also stopped running. I did, however, get in a play that required a lot of dancing. That kept me active for the past couple of months.

I missed running on a track, even an indoor one, but I was excited because just down the road from the indoor facility was a shiny new high school complete with a shiny new track. Last night I thought I'd give the track a test run.

Except, I didn't realize times had changed.

I should have anticipated it really. A brand new multi-million dollar facility will have first-class sports facilities (since that is what we seem to worship in our educational institutions...). It was just about sundown when I arrived. I parked the van and headed toward the football field.

Uh oh, I thought.

The field--and track--was completely surrounded by a high fence. There was no way in, except, of course, to hop the fence, something I wasn't going to do. The high school where I trained for Ragnar was not new--it was decades old. It had no fence surrounding it. Maybe it does now, who knows?

I'm not one to push the "I'm a taxpayer" line when it comes to using the resources that those taxes go to support. I did think, as I stood outside looking in, that it would be nice to be able to use the facilities. But there's too much at stake. They've got too much invested. If it were open to the public, anyone could walk onto the field or the track and do whatever they wanted to do, be it train, or vandalize. It's simply not allowed.

Years and years ago when I was in high school I'm pretty sure we had access to the old track. It was so inferior compared to what's available today. I don't know if people--old people--old runners or walkers would use the track like I wanted to last night. I'd like to think they did. 

Things Are Changing On The West Side...

I took this picture at the beginning of last month after my daughter and I went for a short run. During the week I travel to the west side of town several times, but I don't usually go that far south, south to where the new school is. I knew the new high school was going to be built--the bond passed, after all.

We drove by it again today and a lot of progress has been made. The school walls are about as high as the towers in the picture. The completion date is August, 2018...just over two years. What I found interesting, aside from the huge project rising from the land that was once used to feed cattle and produce crops, was the areas to the south, and west of the new high school.

Things are going to get crazy!

To the east of the property is a large parking lot where the school buses for the county are parked. Directly west of the new school houses are going up, but to the south, there's a couple of farmhouses, but most of it is undeveloped land. The roads to the south and east are going to change as well. Right now they're just two lane roads. They will soon balloon to three times that size and they'll be traffic lights and other "improvements" as well.

The people who live in those farmhouses will suffer the greatest degree of adjustment. I imagine those who don't want to experience all the changes have either moved or will do so soon. For decades life on the west side of I-15 was a whole different animal. From a distance, it looked quiet, simple, uncomplicated. Thanks to the Davis School District (and the voters...), all they once knew will soon be gone forever.