School has been in session for a week now, so my summer is
unofficially over. As I drove around town this past week, I became
increasingly annoyed over all the road construction that is going
on. Road work needs to be done, I accept that.
School has been in session for a week now, so my summer is unofficially over. As I drove around town this past week, I became increasingly annoyed over all the road construction that is going on. Road work needs to be done, I accept that.
Since I live in the Northwest Quad, I am lacking in some of the services other folks in Gilroy are accustomed to, (ie: parks and recreation) so I take solace in the fact that some of my tax dollars are actually going to use in my neighborhood.
I have told my children “it’s true you don’t have that long awaited park near our house, but we are getting a new stop sign on Sunrise Drive.”
I am perplexed by the decision to start all this road work just as schools were getting back in session. Traffic is further compounded by this road work, because parents who might allow their kids to walk to school under normal conditions will not want their kids walking through a construction area.
This problem is not just affecting the northwest area of Gilroy. All week, there have been logjams of traffic around almost every school I pass by. Road work on Santa Teresa is the biggest problem, because it is the main artery for Luigi Aprea, Ascension Solarsano (and Eliot School), and Gilroy High.
One day I attempted to avoid Santa Teresa while driving to Gilroy High and found that Wren Avenue was closed off at Christmas Hill Park. It is simply unavoidable. I noticed the orange cones on the roads near Antonio del Buono and Las Animas. The backup of cars is especially acute in the morning near El Roble and Brownell. I didn’t drive by Glen View or Rucker, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were obstructions there as well.
Thankfully, all three of my children will be running cross country, so I can avoid the afternoon pickup nightmare for a couple of months. The traffic on Santa Teresa between 2:30 and 3:15pm is just horrendous. Anyone could have foreseen this, so I am left wondering why the road work didn’t commence in June or November instead of late August.
Summer is over for our family after Labor Day. Labor Day weekend means the annual “end of summer” block party in our neighborhood. My neighborhood has changed since we first moved here four years ago, but the block party is still going strong. We are blessed to live in a neighborhood of friendly people who look out for each other and support each other. On our block alone, there are kids who attend nearly a dozen different schools and some children are home schooled. We buy candy and cookie dough for every school within a 15-mile radius.
Summer is over and so are the Summer Olympics. This year they were a bit of a disappointment for me. I just didn’t get hooked into these games the way I did four years ago. Greece is certainly a gorgeous country, and the Greek government did a great job on security. Greek tourism will surely benefit from the successful Olympics.
The end of summer also means the official start of campaign season, although in this presidential election year, the campaign season has been in full swing for quite a while.
I watched both conventions, and there were many wonderful political speeches.
The Republican convention seemed more like a 9/11 tribute than a political convention, but that was bound to happen since the convention was in New York. The third anniversary of the attack on our country is fast approaching.
This summer I conducted an informal poll of all the voters in my family. Of the 19 eligible voters in my family, 12 are supporting Kerry, five are supporting Bush, and two are undecided. My family tends to be more pro-union than average. Though I expect the election will be very close, I wouldn’t bet the house on the outcome. But I don’t believe that Ralph Nader will have an effect on the outcome as he did four years ago.
Locally, I am looking forward to an exciting school board race. I can’t wait until the first time that all the candidates will face the public and the press for questions. I predict that this will be a good year for the political novice.
Let the autumn games begin!
