ol' 55

now the sun's coming up..freeway cars and trucks

it was raining last week when I went to the Caltrans Open House at the Carp High cafeteria...the last time I was in a high school cafereria was when I was in high school....I'm not in high school anymore ..well, today I am...Carp High is a great school...I saw young folks playing in the area, throwing tennis balls at the wall...young sweet high school girls giggling and skipping rope..and..and...and...young sweet, pretty high school girls..oh sorry I already said that...hmmmmm...oh boy..hmmmm

 

ok so it's raining a little and I go inside and sign in with the nice ladies to greet you...I check out the displays and ask questions and the Caltrans guys are helpful and sincere...but I've seen it all before...there's no two ways about it..we are getting a six lane highway...so I want to know about the walls, the sound walls and the recently installed elaborate irrigation systems and plantings from Padaro to Santa Claus Lane to Reynolds Ave...are they gonna rip out all the plants and PVC lines and wall off my view to the Salt Marsh and ocean?? well, no they aren't..there may be some minor moving of irrigation lines and some walls, but nothing too gnarly... I express my concern that Caltrans doesn't have much room to expand the highway in front of the Salt Marsh and are they gonna encroach onto Via Real..they say no ...that little chain link fence that separates 101 from Via Real is a property line...the state owns the freeway side, the county owns the Via Real side..so that's good...I find out an 8 ft wall is planned by the Sandpiper Mobile Home Park...8 ft is not too bad...there's a safety issue over there..a car crashed through the fence and landed upside down on Via Real, close to the bus stop...

then a guy from KEYT walks up with his camera rig and asks if he can interview me for the 11:00 PM news...I said ok, he asks why am I here..I say for the wall and start talking away with that camera in my face..then the interview ends and I tell him not to make me look too ugly and say "hi" to Kim Kardashian for me..Kim as you know, anchors the 6:00 PM news!



Santa Claus Lane



so I leave and it's a nice evening so I go to Santa Claus Lane and park... I see a woman and a dog get out of a car..she releases the dog from a leash and it scampers around by the railroad tracks...could this be grounds for animal abuse? I remember some flakey artist dude and his dog were playing by the railroad tracks a few years ago when a Surfliner came roaring around the bend and killed them both....sometimes it's hard to hear the whistle with the surf crashing nearby..


anyway I cursed the lady and her dog, but took in the beauty of the rainy sunset...all I can say is Caltrans better not mess up this area..or next year I'll either be dead or in jail...