This quote from the Beeson Banner shows what happens when politicians
stand back and let road builders do their jobs.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Wednesday, 2 November 2022

No more Roach motel! One can now get to Argonne Road from King's
highway. It's probably been that way for days; the only way we can get
news about the roundabout is to go down and look, which is far from
easy in a car, and I haven't felt up to riding a bike or the flatfoot.

I'm hoping to buy a newspaper tomorrow; gas stations used to sell
local papers. But that may have been only gas stations on U.S. routes.
I intend to stop at Winona Lake Mercantile on my way to the gas
station on Center Street.

3 November 2022

Wahh! I wanna check the ten-day forecast before I decide how much
clothes to put on. An arm out the window doesn't tell you whether
temperature and wind speeds are going up or down.

18:41 --

There's a newspaper box beside the post office. Haven't found
anything in today's paper about the roundabout. Top story is the
puzzlement of several groups of people over how to get eastbound
traffic on Center Street to stop when a westbound school bus stops to
pick up children

I've been saying that my route out of Winona Lake is secure because
they wouldn't have sodded along the sidewalk if they meant to tear it
up. Today both sidewalk and sodding were gone, leaving nothing but
rough dirt that looks as though one would sink into it ankle deep.

But! They made an asphalt ramp from the end of the sidewalk to the
now-closed incoming lane of Park Avenue, and marked a lane with
double-headed arrows all along the jersey barriers (I think that that
is what portable walls are called) marking off the soon-to-be-open
outgoing lane of Park Avenue, more barriers protect a curve onto
Winona Avenue, and a lane wide enough for two-way foot traffic
continues all the way to McKinley. And, I was assured by a big-shovel
operator, "They'll take care of you at the end." But, as it happened,
nobody else wanted to turn onto McKinley when I did, so I didn't need
help. It *was* a bit difficult to signal my turn on the rough
pavement.

A whole bunch of *rational* thought went into this.

"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Not to mention a lot of work.

A tech is coming on Tuesday to see whether he can find out why I can't
send this now. We called a week ago, and we are not happy with
Brightspeed.

Friday, 4 November 2022

Brightspeed repaired the line yesterday, but we didn't know it until
Dave got a phone call this evening.

On 2022-11-05, Joy Beeson <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
>
>
> This quote from the Beeson Banner shows what happens when politicians
> stand back and let road builders do their jobs.
>
>
> """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
>
>
> Wednesday, 2 November 2022
>
> No more Roach motel! One can now get to Argonne Road from King's
> highway. It's probably been that way for days; the only way we can get
> news about the roundabout is to go down and look, which is far from
> easy in a car, and I haven't felt up to riding a bike or the flatfoot.
>
> I'm hoping to buy a newspaper tomorrow; gas stations used to sell
> local papers. But that may have been only gas stations on U.S. routes.
> I intend to stop at Winona Lake Mercantile on my way to the gas
> station on Center Street.
>
>
> 3 November 2022
>
> Wahh! I wanna check the ten-day forecast before I decide how much
> clothes to put on. An arm out the window doesn't tell you whether
> temperature and wind speeds are going up or down.
>
> 18:41 --
>
> There's a newspaper box beside the post office. Haven't found
> anything in today's paper about the roundabout. Top story is the
> puzzlement of several groups of people over how to get eastbound
> traffic on Center Street to stop when a westbound school bus stops to
> pick up children
>
> I've been saying that my route out of Winona Lake is secure because
> they wouldn't have sodded along the sidewalk if they meant to tear it
> up. Today both sidewalk and sodding were gone, leaving nothing but
> rough dirt that looks as though one would sink into it ankle deep.
>
> But! They made an asphalt ramp from the end of the sidewalk to the
> now-closed incoming lane of Park Avenue, and marked a lane with
> double-headed arrows all along the jersey barriers (I think that that
> is what portable walls are called) marking off the soon-to-be-open
> outgoing lane of Park Avenue, more barriers protect a curve onto
> Winona Avenue, and a lane wide enough for two-way foot traffic
> continues all the way to McKinley. And, I was assured by a big-shovel
> operator, "They'll take care of you at the end." But, as it happened,
> nobody else wanted to turn onto McKinley when I did, so I didn't need
> help. It *was* a bit difficult to signal my turn on the rough
> pavement.
>
> A whole bunch of *rational* thought went into this.
>
> """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
>
> Not to mention a lot of work.
>
>
> A tech is coming on Tuesday to see whether he can find out why I can't
> send this now. We called a week ago, and we are not happy with
> Brightspeed.
>
>
> Friday, 4 November 2022
>
> Brightspeed repaired the line yesterday, but we didn't know it until
> Dave got a phone call this evening.
>

Well, hopefully you *subscribe* to the local paper to help keep it in
business and to see the boy go by delivering it on his bicycle (there,
bicycle content invoked).

I used to be one such of those boys. Don't see them around anymore. I guess
it's too scary for the young generation.

What do you think of roundabouts? To me the one-lane ones seem okay in
general to navigate. Busy two lane ones have been a different story, for
me, at least.

Maybe I have not developed the proper strategy as yet....

pH in Aptos

On Sun, 6 Nov 2022 01:16:57 -0000 (UTC), pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org>
wrote:

[snip]

> Well, hopefully you *subscribe* to the local paper to help keep it in
> business and to see the boy go by delivering it on his bicycle (there,
> bicycle content invoked).

We subscribe to the Web version.

[snip]

> What do you think of roundabouts? To me the one-lane ones seem okay in
> general to navigate. Busy two lane ones have been a different story, for
> me, at least.

So far, all our roundabouts have been properly-designed one-lane
roundabouts. Except that many have elevated landscaping in the
middle that sometimes makes it hard to tell whether the lane you are
about to enter is going to *remain* clear while you get up to speed.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net

On Fri, 04 Nov 2022 21:46:04 -0400, Joy Beeson
<jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:

> marked a lane with
> double-headed arrows all along the jersey barriers (I think that that
> is what portable walls are called) marking off the soon-to-be-open
> outgoing lane of Park Avenue, more barriers protect a curve onto
> Winona Avenue, and a lane wide enough for two-way foot traffic
> continues all the way to McKinley.

Thursday 10 November 2022

I came and went by the Heritage Trail when I went to the grocery
today, and it's traffic cones after the Trail diverges from Park
Avenue, not jersey barriers.

A deep trench now runs where the sidewalk was; I think they intend to
keep the pavement where the Trail detour runs along Park Avenue. The
new edge is sharp and clean, and appears to run deeper than the new
trench.

When I returned, the marked Trail was blocked by a dump truck being
filled with dirt -- they are definitely *not* going to keep the
pavement on Winona Avenue. But the sidewalk on the north side of
Winona hasn't been dug up yet, and it was quite safe to pass the truck
on the left -- which I did as quickly as humanly possible.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net

On 2022-11-15, Joy Beeson <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
> On Sun, 6 Nov 2022 01:16:57 -0000 (UTC), pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org>
> wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
>> Well, hopefully you *subscribe* to the local paper to help keep it in
>> business and to see the boy go by delivering it on his bicycle (there,
>> bicycle content invoked).
>
> We subscribe to the Web version.
>
> [snip]
>
Well, I must admit that the new flatscreen monitors *do* fit better at the
bottom of the canary's cage. But I still prefer newspaper. And when I
throw a monitor in to start the woodstove the cord always hangs out the door
and I have to open it up and stuff it all in. The ball of paper is still my
fave.

But to each his own!

(Seriously, though...you don't miss the *real* paper?

>> What do you think of roundabouts? To me the one-lane ones seem okay in
>> general to navigate. Busy two lane ones have been a different story, for
>> me, at least.
>
> So far, all our roundabouts have been properly-designed one-lane
> roundabouts. Except that many have elevated landscaping in the
> middle that sometimes makes it hard to tell whether the lane you are
> about to enter is going to *remain* clear while you get up to speed.
>

The nearest roudabout is about 12 miles away from me in Santa Cruz. I don't
get there often...it's urbanizing at a furious pace!

I did go bike shopping today in Capitola and that is traumatic enough,
trafficwise. Not the idyllic country lanes I used to commute on. Doable,
just not fun.

pH in Aptos

On Thu, 17 Nov 2022 23:48:26 -0000 (UTC), pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org>
wrote:

>On 2022-11-15, Joy Beeson <jbeeson@invalid.net.invalid> wrote:
>> On Sun, 6 Nov 2022 01:16:57 -0000 (UTC), pH <wNOSPAMp@gmail.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>>> Well, hopefully you *subscribe* to the local paper to help keep it in
>>> business and to see the boy go by delivering it on his bicycle (there,
>>> bicycle content invoked).
>>
>> We subscribe to the Web version.
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>Well, I must admit that the new flatscreen monitors *do* fit better at the
>bottom of the canary's cage. But I still prefer newspaper. And when I
>throw a monitor in to start the woodstove the cord always hangs out the door
>and I have to open it up and stuff it all in. The ball of paper is still my
>fave.
>
>But to each his own!
>
>(Seriously, though...you don't miss the *real* paper?
>
>
>
>>> What do you think of roundabouts? To me the one-lane ones seem okay in
>>> general to navigate. Busy two lane ones have been a different story, for
>>> me, at least.
>>
>> So far, all our roundabouts have been properly-designed one-lane
>> roundabouts. Except that many have elevated landscaping in the
>> middle that sometimes makes it hard to tell whether the lane you are
>> about to enter is going to *remain* clear while you get up to speed.
>>
>
>The nearest roudabout is about 12 miles away from me in Santa Cruz. I don't
>get there often...it's urbanizing at a furious pace!
>
>I did go bike shopping today in Capitola and that is traumatic enough,
>trafficwise. Not the idyllic country lanes I used to commute on. Doable,
>just not fun.
>
>pH in Aptos

The thing that I miss mostly is not having any "paper" to use as a
back drop when spray painting something.
--
Cheers,

John B.