Life In The Great Bay Area - NOT

Every once in a while I get the crazy idea that living in the bay area, (where the company I worked for was based, before I retired,) wouldn’t be so bad.

Yea, there's lots of sun, no snow, and housing isn't that bad, (as long as you bought in the 60's)

And then I read the San Jose paper and see this.

"A tanker carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline crashed and exploded early this morning near the Bay Bridge, causing 250 yards of roadway to collapse. Portions of the heavily-traveled MacArthur Maze will be closed for months."

That’s the same area that collapsed during the last ‘quake. Maybe they should have learned that double-decker tollways are a bad idea. (For all I know, they could have pulled a stock image from the files and printed it, we wouldn't know the difference.)

"California Highway Patrol officer Trenton Cross said he believed the truck's driver was speeding along the ramp connecting westbound Interstates 580 and 80 near Emeryville when he crashed."

Speeding vehicles, (even gas trucks,) are the norm for the bay area. Had that truck been doing the limit, that would have been news

"The truck exploded in a fireball that melted the upper-level eastbound connector ramp. The driver walked away from the accident and took a taxi to a nearby hospital where he is being treated for second-degree burns, officials said.

By contrast, here in DullLivin Wisconsin, they recently replaced the bridge where county O goes over Turtle Creek. And boy was that job done quickly. (The city and the county were arguing for years about who would pay what and to whom, but when the city wanted to annex a housing development south of the bridge, they got together, rolled up their sleeves, and wrote a check.)

Here is the new bridge. Nope, It ain't as purty as the fancy ones out on the coast, but it does the job. And you'd be surprised how easy it was if you didn't find any snail darters in the creek.

Come to think, though, If I was planing on having someone survey for sensitive fish, I might make sure that the flow out of Delavan Lake, a short distance upstream, was fully shut off at the outlet dam when it's time to do the survey.

But that's just my grouchy old observations. Somehow, construction projects in this neck of the woods tend to get finished a lot quicker, even in Wisconsin!