Adventures on the road

[rolanni]

So, yesterday I drove Kineo to Augusta, to, in fact, Charlie's Subaru, in order to have Routine Maintenance done.

This may not sound like much of an adventure.  To fully understand how very adventuresome it was as an undertaking, you need to recall -- or be told -- that All of Maine is tearing up the roads.  Not only is this the normal and usual Summer Road Construction, but various town are installing gas lines, so additional roads are being torn up for that purpose.  In Waterville on any given day, all of the East-West roads may be closed, forcing one to drive through the towns abutting in order to get from one side of the city to the other.  This meant, among other things, that I had to choose my route to I95 with care.  My information was that the town, or the gas company, had finished with tearing up River Road, so I went that way, and picked up the expressway in Sidney.

For a wonder, the segment of the expressway from Sidney to Augusta was not under construction, so I didn't get into real trouble until I reached Western Avenue, which is being Thoroughly Torn Up, and the turn into Charlie's service area.

This is an important turn on a busy road, and in Rational Times, commands its own turn lane, and its own light.  And a sign on the wire that supports the traffic control devices, which says:

LEFT TURN ON GREEN ARROW ONLY

Except, someone, in their infinite wisdom, had wrapped about four hundred yards of black construction plastic all around the Left Turn device, meaning that there was no legal way to get into the service area, except to drive down into Manchester, and turn around.

Ahead of me, the traffic coming from Manchester stretched for miles (it's a long hill; you can actually see for miles), packed like sardines.

I hesitated, wondering WTF?, and in my moment of hesitation an approaching truck stopped and flashed his headlights twice.  I seized the day, waved, and made the (illegal) left turn into Charlie's, where I left Kineo in care of the service manager and retired to the waiting room to read in the lovely air conditioning.

One good thing about the waiting room experience -- Charlie is remodeling his showroom, which the waiting room abuts, and the crew had moved the television Somewhere Else, leaving us four old women with our books in peace.

When it came time to leave, I had no fears of the light governing my turn onto Western Avenue; after all I would be turning right, and there was no law nor sign agin' it.

My light was red, as I approached.  I stopped the car, looked down to take the lid off of my water bottle, and looked up again to find that my light was green, the car to my right on Western Avenue had stopped in good order, and a jeep breaking from somewhere in the pack, roaring up the shoulder, slammed into the planet-sized pothole next to the stopped car, lofted completely off of the road, slammed back down onto the road halfway through the intersection and tore off down Western Avenue for the space of about eight car lengths, because did I mention that Western Avenue in that area is being Thoroughly Torn Up, with heavy equipment, and huge holes in the road, and all like that?

My light was still green, so I made the turn.

On the expressway on my way back to Waterville, I almost got pushed off the road by a Wide Load veering suddenly into my lane, but that's hardly worth mentioning.

Writing-wise, we're in the home stretch. WARNING: Authors at End-of-Book tend to be cranky.  This is due, in part, from having to hold the Whole Freaking Book In Your Head At Once.  You should notice no difference in my usual demeanor.

Also?  I'm posting a snippet below.  If the snippet or any word contained in the snippet offends you?  Please keep that information to yourself.  Thank you.

* * *

Progress on Dragon in Exile

102,000 out of 100,000 OR 102% complete

She had never seen that lamp before in her life.

Comments

Snippets are like chocolates

[aska-kettlingur.livejournal.com]

Snippets are like chocolates--a really good one leaves you craving more.

This snippet ranks almost up there with "THE MAN WHO was not Terrence O'Grady had come quietly." My mind overflows with possibilities.

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

Makes me hope it's the first line in the book ;)

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

I shall resist the urge to inform you that the word "lamp" deeply offends me due to lighting-related tragedy in my past. *grin*

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

This is the season everywhere usually referred to as "No matter where you want to go, you can't get there from here."

Across the road from my house is a big electronic road sign on a trailer. It normally flashes three screens of information giving work dates and telling drivers to expect delays. Last week, some soul (not me!) reprogrammed it in the dead of night so that it read, "My wife is hot!"

Of course drivers had to pull over to take pictures. The traffic control company finally turned it to face away from the road until someone came up to reprogram it.

[pgranzeau.livejournal.com]

Ten words should not be justified by the term "snippet", really. . . .

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Snippet, a noun: a small piece or brief extract.
"snippets of information about the war"
synonyms: piece, bit, scrap, fragment, particle, shred; excerpt, extract

Anybody see anything about length in there?

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

Haha! I read that as "Snippet, a noun: a small piece of beef extract" and thought WTF?? Clearly I need some coffee ;p

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

And I'm so tired, I could have actually typed that.

Ah, well. . .it will over be over but the red pen by Sunday.

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

I'd read that, just because. :P

[jessie-c.livejournal.com]

I still cannot wrap my head around that particular sort of mental gymnastics needed to be offended by snippets. They are a delightful little treat offered by the author out of the goodness of her heart and ought to be treasured as such.

[star-horse3.livejournal.com]

What she said.

snippet

[star-horse3.livejournal.com]

Also, this snippet cracked me up because it reminded me of a line from the Witches of Karres by James Schmitz,

Re: snippet

[hairmonger.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *That's* what was tickling the back of my mind!

Mary Anne in Kentucky

[the wol (from livejournal.com)]

In a way your snippets are like catching a whiff of peach cobbler being baked of a morning and knowing you won't get to eat it until supper time. Sigh.

[drammar.livejournal.com]

My Grandmother used to say "those people make my a** tired."

Love your snippets, whatever length, topic, or anything else. The are a tickle to the senses -- not overpowering, just a tease of something wonderful in the offing.

And if people don't like them or are offended, they don't have to read them. But the vast majority of us are grateful for them.