Finally done with that curve swerve!

At last, the county Public Works department has finished straightening out the S curve in our road by removing a tree. They responded to a neighbor's complaint about a pecan tree that has been successfully dodged by drivers on the road for at least the last 15 years. The neighbor's contention was that the tree presented a hazard. It was really a blessing in disguise because it caused folks to slow down a little as they zoom zoomed along. I have only seen one person nearly come in contact with the old tree and that was years ago.. It was a female who was driving a station wagon. She was going a little too fast and a wheel caught in soft dirt causing her car to spin around in the road. She came to rest with her headlights facing the tree while her tail lights pointed towards our house. She never drove the road that fast again.

After the guys from Public Works cut the tree down to a mere stump, a contractor came out and dug the roots out and pulled the stump from the ground. He also up pulled our concrete boundary marker and the white PVC pipe that was next to the marker. He left the marker and pipe lying where they fell. T went across the road and put the marker back in the hole.

In a few days, the county again came out and spread black dirt from the beginning of the curve to the end, along the whole length of our property. Ugly? Oh, it was ugly. We are so used to seeing the light brown dust of the road that the extreme blackness was just hurtful to the eyes.

A day or so after that, the big trucks came back and began dumping lime rock on the road - right on top of the black dirt. That would be okay, if they had merely laid down a thin layer. Nope, they mounded the lime rock up at least 6 or 8 inches above the ground level. They didn't allow for a driveway slant or any place for a driver to pull off the road. I think they're waiting for us to drive our cars and compress the lime rock to a level that is easier to manage. Right now, we have to go uphill to get on the road from the driveway. Forget coming off the road into the drive. We find ourselves slowing down to make the drop-off so we won't get a flat tire.

If the road doesn't compress much, maybe they'll bring one of those roller machines to run back and forth and flatten the lime rock enough for a person to come and go safely.

Oh, yes - and now, instead of a lovely old tree at the curve - we have a few white posts with yellow reflectors that line the road so that drivers will know to turn the wheels. Oh, well. We can only hope for seedlings along the roadside that will eventually grow into Pecans. Or Oaks. I'd take a Mighty Oak right about now.