In my town, they started replacing a four-mile stretch
of sidewalk four years ago and they have not finished yet. The main street through town US 50 has been
cut to one lane each way as a result, making commerce and just life in general frustrating
for four summers and this year it's getting especially strange as we approach winter 2019.
Now that the four-mile stretch is complete, it seems that instead
of bringing the project to an end, they are going back to rebuild some of the first sidewalk they replaced, and the roads are still closed.
It's as if they are just going to keep rebuilding and rebuilding the sidewalk,
just to keep this particular group of construction workers employed. When I ride by them, inside a bus crawling in
traffic, I watch them and they are working with all the enthusiasm of little kids
forced to stay outside and dig a garden when they'd rather be on the couch. They're
slow moving, a couple guys will be standing around talking while one guy
appears to be hacking at the asphalt with a stick, but as you observe, nothing
seems to be getting done.
My first thought is of Communist Russia. I remember people I'd meet who got out of the
USSR saying that nothing there ever got done right. There'd be a hundred people working on something
getting paid a good wage yet nothing got done.
They'd just live with the incompetency and joke about it,
with a shot of harsh vodka.
That's life in the USA now too.
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