"Welcome to the Home of the Big Dig"

Thursday

Now I don't know anything about bricklaying, but I bet I could learn if I needed to.  And if I needed to I bet I could brick up a garage door in a day.  The city owns the building that we work in, and they have some kind of plan for it.  Yesterday they began laying cinderblocks in front of Door Number 2 (no organization uses that space currently).  Four guys were working on the wall again today, and they still haven't finished.  Several weeks ago the city tore up the asphalt from the street in front of our warehouse, and they still haven't come back to repave it.  I can't imagine that our van's right front idler arm appreciated that we played dodge the raised manholes while loaded with 3,000 pounds of produce every day.  While that wasn't the sole reason we had to replace it, I'm sure it didn't help.

While on the subject of the streets of Boston, I should put in a word about the cars on those streets.  People always say that Boston drivers are crazy, but it turns out... they're right!  A for instance:  Once, back before the rode in front of our warehouse was torn up, I was driving along it, ready to turn left into the parking lot.  A car was behind me, and I signaled a left turn.  I slowed down slightly to make the turn (I didn't need to slow down much, as it is a slow road regardless).  I see a whiz of white as the car passes me on the left, while I nearly turn into the car.

Another for instance:  I watched two cars coming from the same direction approach a stop sign.  Both cars were turning right.  The car in back squealed its tires to make the right turn on the outside of the other vehicle.

On the main roads, depending on the time of day, one is better off on two wheels.  On my way to the warehouse I drive on Dorchester Avenue (Dot Ave) for about two miles.  Turning onto Dot Ave, yesterday, I was behind a cyclist I hit several red lights along the way, and plenty of traffic.  While I was sitting, waiting to turn left off of Dot Ave, who should come pedalling along but the very same cyclist.  Biking on the main roads is a job and a half.  You have to keep 150% of your attention focused on the biking, and as a mathematician I know this isn't even possible.  Since you are allowed to pass cars on the right, this sometimes means navigating a narrow alley between the cars in the road, and those that are parked.  All the while the cyclist must watch for cars on both sides of the alley that might decide that they would rather be on the alley's other side.  Car doors could open suddenly, and behind every parked car lurks the potential for an oblivious pedestrian.  Maybe this is why varieties of pedestrians have been categoried and intersections have been mapped in a book called "The Boston Driver's Handbook: Wild in the Streets--The Almost Post Big Dig Edition" (http://tinyurl.com/guidetodrivinginboston).

There's an intersection on Dot Ave that almost seems worthy of inclusion.  Two roads intersect Dot Ave near the same spot.  Both intersect at different angles on each side of the road.  Rather than install a normal traffic control light, Dot Ave is always blinking yellow, and the side roads are always blinking red (unless a pedestrian hits the crosswalk button, in which case the entire intersection shuts down and waits for the pedestrian to cross) (http://tinyurl.com/dotave).  This is what happens when you let cows design the roads.