Give 'em a Brake

Give 'em a brake, isn't that slogan for the state DOT workers? I totally agree that we should be cautious around road workers and would hate to cause any one harm, but today, I wasn't so compassionate. The road I travel to work is getting ready for a face lift. This past week, workers have been ripping out the old tubes in the road ditches under the driveways and installing new ones. Each morning and evening when I go home, all is quiet on the road and machinery is parked in nearby fields. Yesterday I was frustrated that the warning signs were placed quite a ways ahead and I slow down right away only to crawl along for a while before getting to the work area. Last night I paid attention to where the work had been finished as the new culverts are corrugated metal pipe and shine brightly in the sun.

This morning as I was moving right along down the road when I came up to the work site. I immediately slowed down. There was a lady standing to flag cars only she wasn't flagging cars at all. She wasn't even facing the same direction nor did she have her flag rolled out yet. I slowed down and moved into the other lane since it was down to one lane at that point according to the warning sign a while back. As I did so, the lady stopped, stared at me, gave me a nasty look and shook her head. I watched her in the mirror as she turned and watched me go by.

So here's what I found entertaining and frustrating all at the same time. I know this isn't a highway or a super heavily traveled road but you can still take the appropriate cautions. It wasn't like they were just getting started and I flew through there. As I got a little bit down the road, the one lane and even a bit of the other were covered in dirt they'd dug out of the ditch. There were no cones to guide traffic, no person on the other end to divert traffic around the track hoe. Just this one lady who had a pissy attitude and didn't have her flag out. As I continued to drive to work, I tried to make sense of her reaction to me. And it just didn't make sense. I slowed down and moved into the other lane. Was I supposed to stop? Maybe she should have had a sign out then that said stop then. Geesh, I hope she has a better day and she's done working when I drive back through this afternoon.