A brief encounter, and the sad aftermath

Tuesday, December 2nd was our first significant snowfall this season. Temperatures have rarely risen above freezing since then. Just after midnight Friday morning temperatures dropped to 16F, and then dropped further to 9F by 9:00 AM. Friday saw a bit of a warmup, so temperatures were around 27F when I left work at 12:40 AM Saturday morning.

It has been my habit lately to drive past the cemetery on my way home from work to see if the candle on my mother's grave (easily visible from the road) is still lit. I replaced it on Sunday, and it had still been burning the previous morning. It was out. From repeated observation, these candles only last five days.

This path home takes me through some densely forested areas. Most of Northeastern Pennsylvania is heavily forested, so this is not unusual. Still, deer, skunks, rabbits, and other woodland critters (including bears) pose a collision hazard year-round, and can unexpectedly step out of the woods.

Coming down the Sans Souci parkway into Nanticoke I had to brake hard and swerve as a thing walked directly into my path. Black fur with white on the belly. Nearly as long as a deer but much shorter. Weirdly-shaped head. Too many legs. ...two tails?

It was two dogs walking briskly across the parkway side by side, pressed against each other, one walking a few inches behind the other. They paid me little heed as they passed from the direction of Tractor Supply towards the railroad tracks, towards the vacant building that used to be Dundee Gardens.

Where did they come from? Where were they going? What were they doing outside in subfreezing temperatures? I don't know. I'm just glad I didn't hit them.

...at least, I didn't know until I saw this:

Please hold your animal friends close and don't let them roam. Bad things can happen to them if you let them roam.

Untold stories: Farewell to the Tercel

I bought my first car, a two-door 1990 Toyota Tercel, in 1992. It lasted four years until an unfortunate incident involving an oil change that apparently was only done partway - they never got around to putting oil back in the engine, as I found out a few days later. (It was on Holy Thursday in 1996. I remember growling "Tomorrow had better be a Good Friday, because it's been a lousy Thursday.")

I bought my second car shortly afterwards. It was new off the lot, a Nightshade Blue four-door Tercel DX. It was roomy and comfortable, even though it was one of the smallest cars available. It served me well for over twenty years. It started to show its age after about ten years, and began to have issues after about fifteen. By the 20 year mark, after well over 375,000 miles, it was clearly in need of replacement. I only drove it a few times a year after that to make sure the battery still worked, but eventually it took up permanent residence in our driveway. I knew I had to get rid of it, but couldn't bring myself to do it - until I was advised in June 2023, four months after my mother had died, that I had to.

Stripped of its license plate and ready to be hauled off. I had to send the plate to the state to prove that I no longer needed to carry insurance. 

I made arrangements with one of those groups that would haul away your car and donate the resale or scrap value to a charity - in this case, WVIA, the local NPR affiliate. I had to strip the interior of the car, which was a real deep dive into my personal history. I found some stuff in there that dated to around the time I bought my previous car.

Homemade window stickers featuring an alien, Garage Mahal (a friend's band), and the classic Alfred E. Neumann portrait from MAD Magazine. I don't remember what the missing sticker was. (I think it was Binky from Matt Groening's Life in Hell.)

I had wanted to be there to witness them taking it away, but the truck arrived much later than promised. By then my work-from-home job had started for the day, and I could only listen to the distant sounds of the car being manhandled onto a flatbed. I was most concerned it would simply snap in half as they tried to haul it off, but it didn't, as far as I could tell.

The Tercel had clearly seen better days. I was afraid it would crack in half when they came to haul it away. Note the homemade window stickers featuring the cover of My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" and the Hubble Space Telescope Deep Field.

It was a good car. It served me well, and was exactly what I needed. It was fast and nimble. It routinely got 40 mpg on the highway, even better on long trips. I still have a hard time parking the Toyota Camry I drive now.

This was a 1996 Tercel DX, a Deluxe model. I believe at the time that meant it had four doors, an automatic transmission, and power steering and brakes.

I realized last night I had not posted about my car since 2015. I decided I didn't want it to just fade away without some note of its passing. So, here it is.

Note the good old-fashioned manual climate controls.

376,483 official miles - plus a few more, since the speedometer and odometer stopped working sometime in 2016 or so. The velcro was for a small tap light I used to illuminate the speedometer when it was working - the dashboard light burned out around 2012. Apparently the Tercel went to its grave with nearly a full tank of gasoline. Fun fact: gasoline loses its functionality as a vehicle fuel after sitting around for a few years.

Breakdowns in March

March 2: Driver's side windshield wiper blade falls apart. Replaced. (This had been breaking since January, and I had bought a replacement a few weeks earlier.)

March 4: Car battery dies after nearly three years. Replaced March 5.

March 12 (12:45 AM): Upon leaving work, discovered that both low beam headlight bulbs had burned out. Drove home with high beams on. My mom got this car in 2014 and I've never replaced the headlight bulbs, so I guess it was time.

(UPDATE, 3/17/24: The 2009 Toyota Camry has two "headlight" bulbs. If you look the information up online, you will be told that the replacement bulb is a 9005. This is the replacement for the running light bulb. This apparently only comes on when you switch on the high beams. The headlight bulb itself is an X11, which is increasingly difficult to get. They are not interchangeable. I ordered two 9005s, when I actually need two X11s. Turns out I have one X11 that I believe was left in the glove compartment in its package by the previous owner, so I need one more.)

March 13: Television dies. This TV was about twelve years old, so I guess that was due, too.

UPDATE, 3/28/24: Water heater dies, March 26. My mom had subscribed to one of those home warranty companies, which I always saw as a ripoff - anything you actually need done never seems to be covered. Turns out the subscription was left on auto-renewal. It first renewed a week or two after she died, and then again a year later. I had it transferred into my name. They sent someone out yesterday to check the water heater - a covered system - and he confirmed that it needs to be replaced, something that is not covered. I saw some stickers on the water heater itself, which was installed in June 2018, and called the number to see if it is still under the manufacturer's warranty. It is! So now I just have to arrange to have someone remove the old heater, take it to a specific retailer, get a replacement heater, and install it. Still going to cost a lot of money.

Sigh. Life is expensive.

Dead battery, again

And so this "new year" begins on a familiar note.

I needed to go grocery shopping this weekend. This used to be a weekly thing, but lately I've been shopping once every two weeks. I meant to go on Saturday, or maybe early Sunday. But after my trip to the cemetery on the anniversary of my mom's burial - capped with a graveside changing a windshield wiper in the rain - I didn't feel much like shopping for groceries. Sunday, for various reasons, I was not able to get out as early as I would have liked, and wound up leaving around 8:00 PM.

The shopping trip was uneventful. I found everything I needed except lettuce - the section for iceberg lettuce was empty. I jammed my purchases into the trunk, pulled out of the parking lot, and drove home the long way around, crossing the Nanticoke-West Nanticoke bridge, which may be torn down and replaced in a few years. I got home, pulled into the driveway, shut off the car, sat for a minute to listen to the radio, and watched the dome light get dimmer and dimmer.

I tried to restart the car. The starter clicked and buzzed.

OK. Don't panic, I thought. We've been here before. The battery just needs to rest a few hours and then it will be able to start the car again. I contemplated driving in to work Monday afternoon, walking out of work in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, and finding that the car would not start.

I got ready for work today. Made my goodbyes to the cats. Made my way to the car with my computer satchel, a Zone bar for my lunch, my drink, and a raincoat for the rain expected tonight. Loaded everything in the car. Put the key in the ignition and turned it. Heard a click and a buzz.

Tried again, several times. No good.

I called my supervisor to see if I could take today as a work-from-home day. She looked into it. Called me back to tell me no, that option wasn't available today, but I could take "annual leave" - basically a day off. I'm not hoarding my time off to spend with my mom in the event of her contracting COVID-19 or some other medical emergency, not anymore.

It's been almost three years since the last time I needed to replace the car battery, on March 20, 2021. The time before that was October 30, 2018.

I've made arrangements to get the battery replaced tomorrow. We'll see how long this one lasts.

NOTE TO SELF, March 6, 2024: This new battery has a 42 month full replacement warranty. Considering that the last battery lasted 36 months and the one before lasted 29 months, this is important...as long as all parties involved are still in existence in 42 months.

Snow

Currently at my workplace we are working one day a week in the office and four days working from home. After several weeks spent mostly on FMLA and Bereavement Leave, yesterday was my first day in the office in over a month.

Snow was in the forecast. Predictions kept fluctuating, suggesting we would either dodge the worst of it or take a solid hit. During my final break at 8:00 PM nothing had started yet, and it looked like we might be spared. But the snow was coming down hard when I left around 10:40 PM. 

It kept coming down, harder and harder. Flakes the size of goose down, then the size of feather duster feathers. Thick flakes that made the windshield wipers work hard to scrub the windshield clean. My normal commute runs along the south rim of the Wyoming Valley, but I decided to drop down to a lower elevation and come in through Wilkes-Barre. It helped, a little. Still, a drive of 20 minutes wound up taking nearly an hour.

My mother would have been worried sick. I'm glad she was spared that.

Merry Christmas 2022

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Once again I have failed to get out any Christmas cards, which, based on my Facebook memories, is more often the case than not. I have also managed to not bake anything this year, other than the traditional lemon meringue and coconut cream pies for my family. While preheating the oven to prepare the pie crusts, the oven suddenly emitted a frantic beeping noise and displayed an F code - F25, I think. A second attempt had a similar result, this time with an F11 code. Messing with the controls by trying to change the clock display produced more beeps. Finally I had the idea to let the timer run through a cycle - perhaps letting a normal function run to completion would get things back on track. I set the timer for two minutes. At the end of its countdown it set off its alarm tone. That seemed to clear any errors, and I was able to use the oven normally.

We are having the coldest December in many years, and much of the country is experiencing its coldest Christmas in decades. The weather pattern - and "Arctic Blast," different from the "Polar Vortex" of years past - produced a strange and dangerous pattern across many of the northern states: snow midweek, followed by rain and rapid warming into the 50s (Fahrenheit), followed by a sudden temperature drop accompanied by high winds, producing flash freezing on surfaces - including icing-up of cars.

My sister traveled to the area for the holidays and warned of the icy conditions. I had last driven our car on Thursday, making a final pre-Christmas run to the bank and the grocery store and to fill up the gas tank. Friday the car sat idle in the frigid temperatures, wet from Thursday's rains.

This afternoon, while getting ready to drive out to my brother's for the traditional Vigil Supper, I was able to get the car started with some difficulty. I spun the car around so I was facing the wrong way on the street, facing my sister's car. After a few minutes of warmup and waiting for my mom and my sister to come out of the house - we were going to take two cars - I noticed that the radio playing the local Christmas station was starting to cut out. Then the ABS light came on and stayed on. Then the battery light. I reparked the car facing the right way and we decided to only take my sister's car instead. Unfortunately, I had parked too far from the curb. When I tried to restart the car it would not turn over. Possibly an alternator failure, maybe something related to the alternator - a belt, the charging wires to the battery, something. Whatever happened I apparently drained the battery and will need a tow to our nearby service station. Fortunately I do not have to drive in to work until January 9 (we are closed the next two Mondays, which is my day to be in the office), so I have some time to deal with this.

Anyway. Merry Christmas!

First steps back

 I received my second dose of the Moderna vaccine on March 6, 2021, four weeks after my first dose. Two weeks later, on March 20, 2021, I was officially "fully vaccinated."

Like so many others, I celebrated with a trip to the dentist.

It wasn't my first trip to the dentist during the pandemic. It was actually my second. My first had been on February 6, the same day as my first Moderna dose. I hadn't planned on going until two weeks after my second dose, but a shattered molar - a very common stress-related phenomenon during the pandemic - caused me to bump up my plans. During the routine exam, the dentist spotted a few cavities that had taken hold in the two years since my last visit, and she scheduled a follow-up for March 6, the day of my second vaccination. I begged off and was able to get rescheduled for two weeks later, coincidentally the day I officially reached "fully vaccinated" status.

I had big plans for that day. One of the few remaining "gray lady" banks in Nanticoke had announced that it would be closing, and I suspect that it may be demolished soon. We have family history with this bank - my grandfather worked there as a maintenance man after his jobs as a foreman the local silk throwing mill and at an out-of-state auto factory ended.  I planned to go out and photograph the three remaining buildings, much as I once photographed the churches of Nanticoke. I also planned to return to the cemetery where I took the photo of the crocus in the previous post. (Had I gone there, I might have seen some new flowers growing up huge on the other side of the headstone, flowers that looked like crocuses but three times the size of normal crocuses, flowers that would be withered by the time I got there a few weeks later.) I planned to go shopping at stores I hadn't been to in over a year. Maybe I would make a pilgrimage to Hillside Farms to commune with the animals. But first, I wanted to go grocery shopping.

The dental appointment didn't take long. Less than an hour, start to finish. After it was over, I walked to the post office next door and bought some stamps for my mom. Then I drove the car about a hundred yards to the grocery store across the street.

I had a lot to buy. I took my time, trying to feel more relaxed. I was fully vaccinated. I didn't have to be afraid anymore. 

About an hour later I exited the store with my purchases, loaded the car, put the cart away. I got in the car, put on my seat belt, turned the ignition.

Click.

Nothing happened.

When I had the car inspected in January, the battery test came back with a 60% charge. This seemed low for a battery that had been installed little more than two years earlier, on October 31, 2018. The guy from AAA who came to the supermarket parking lot to give me a jump confirmed that the battery was now at 50% charge and should be replaced. I asked him how long batteries usually lasted these days. He said most lasted at least three years. I guess I was just lucky.

(The battery hadn't died because I left the lights on or anything like that. Starting a car drains a battery tremendously, and it recharges as you drive. Starting the car, driving it a hundred yards or so from the dentist's to the supermarket, and then trying to start it again probably drained it past the point of useful charge.) 

After I got a jump I took the car on a forty-mile round trip, but then parked the car for the weekend. No outings or adventures on that battery. I was able to make an appointment to get the battery replaced early the next week at the same shop where I had had the inspection in January, a shop several generations of my family have used through several generations of the owner's family. I asked the owner - who is also the chief mechanic -  about why the battery might have died so quickly. He said it was because the car has mostly been used for short trips once or twice a week for the past year, combined with cold winter weather. I asked it this was something he was seeing more of lately, and he pointed to a line of replaced batteries on the floor. Like shattering molars, dead car batteries are another side-effect of the the pandemic. 

A week later, March 27, I had to run out to pick up some Easter chocolate from a local candy maker. After I loaded up the trunk with chocolate, I decided to go on my delayed shopping trip.

I started with Barnes & Noble, the last bookstore in the area. Barnes & Noble had been badly damaged by a tornado in June 2018. (A corner of the building was torn off, though the structural integrity remained good, and much of the interior went undamaged - many tables stacked with books went untouched.) The store remained closed for the rest of the year while the damage was repaired. I missed the grand re-opening in January 2019, and then didn't go there for one reason or another for most of the rest of 2019. I last stopped in back in February 2020, and bought a softcover of Neil Gaiman's collection Trigger Warning, which I would read and reread throughout the next year.

I was nervous about entering the store. I didn't know what to expect. I immediately noticed that the bargain books section had been reduced to a single small table and an overloaded cart. The shelves had been rearranged in a strange way, with shelves butted up against adjacent shelves at right angles, creating a sort of labyrinth that made it very difficult to move quickly through the store, especially if you are trying to avoid other shoppers. I forgot why I was there and what I was looking for. Surely I wasn't just browsing? I decided to seek out more Neil Gaiman, only to find that he was absent from the Science Fiction section. I wound my way through the labyrinth to the adjacent Fantasy section, and located a few of his titles. I picked up paperbacks of Fragile Things and Smoke & Mirrors, each priced at half as much as the softcover I had bought a year earlier. Satisfied with my selection, I hurried to the periodicals department. I briefly considered picking up the latest New Scientist, Skeptical Inquirer, or Fortean Times, but in the end I just wanted to get out. I found my path to the checkout obstructed by other shoppers and had to swing wide. Finally I was checked out, out the door, and on my way back to the car.

Next up was Lowes for a new amber low-intensity LED lightbulb for my triple-headed light. Then to Michaels Arts and Crafts for some floral foam, and Dollar Tree for various items - most of which they didn't have. For all of these places, this was my first visit in well over a year. I was double-masked and running in every store, breathing as little as possible.

Finally I stopped at Burger King to use a coupon to get dinner for that night and the next few days. The drive-through there was extremely crowded, and this stop alone took nearly half an hour. 

I got home about three hours after I had set out for the candy store.

Later that week I took my mom (who became fully vaccinated two days before me) to a appointment in a hospital. We rode in an elevator. I sat in a waiting area for an hour. None of this would have been imaginable a month earlier.

Last Sunday was Easter. We got together for dinner with my brother and his family (all fully vaccinated several weeks before us) at their house. No masks. No distancing. The first time we had been together  indoors in close contact in well over a year.

I've made plans to meet with a group of friends over the Memorial Day weekend, and with another group the Sunday after Mother's Day - all fully vaccinated. I'm eagerly waiting for other friends to get their first shots this week, so their countdown to full vaccination can begin.

The downward plunge of cases has slowed, stopped, and reversed - and now case counts have slowly crept up to a level last seen in late October, or at the height of the Summer Surge. We're not done yet. Vaccinations are continuing at an admirable pace, but we still have a way to go. 

Whupped

Ten consecutive days of work - well, the last five days of training, on the 11:00 AM - 7:30 PM shift, followed immediately by my first five days of actual work, from 3:30 PM to midnight - have left me exhausted. It didn't help that the last two nights - err, early mornings - had me driving back in snowy, icy conditions, puttering along at 40 miles per hour for much of my nearly 15 mile commute home, or that I didn't get out of work until 12:49 this morning because of the complexity of my last call. But the alternative was to take one day off, work five days, take another day off, and work another five days. I think it's better this way.

I had plans for today. I didn't get most of them done. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

Tumbling into Thanksgiving

I start a new job next Monday. This week I'm trying to cram in a lot of things, since I'm looking at ten weeks of inflexible training - no opportunity for time off. So I've been running my mom to appointments, and running one of our cats to appointments, and on Wednesday I'll be taking the car in for its annual inspection. The inspection is due in January, but I would only be able to get it done on weekends in January, and our preferred mechanic is only available Monday through Friday. Fortunately, a January inspection can be done in November, so Wednesday it is. (Besides, if there is some special work that needs to be done, I have time to get it done before the inspection expires.)

I have a story that I repost every Thanksgiving, and this year will be no different. I have another story that I wrote years ago that is ostensibly a Christmas story, but is actually set just before Thanksgiving. It's a satire about the "keep Christ in Christmas" movement, but many of the satirical elements are dangerously close to coming true - if they haven't already. I've never posted that story to this blog, and don't know if that will happen anytime soon.

I haven't written anything of significance in a while, in part for the same reasons I couldn't possibly take on the work-at-home position offered to me as our old workplace was shutting down. I don't foresee these reasons going away anytime soon, and may possibly get worse after I'm once again gainfully employed. But I will try. I'm reading some inspirational material right now - "Storyteller" by Kate Wilhelm - and will get to see one of my favorite local poets in just a few days, so we'll see if the dark spirit of creativity will once again settle over me like a shroud.

College radio stations in NEPA

I had the weak and dying battery in my car - a battery which is rated for five years of use and is anywhere from five years old (assuming it was installed shortly before we bought the car in February 2014) to nine years old (assuming it is original to the car, a 2009 Camry) - replaced today. This means that I lost all the radio stations I had programmed in and needed to reset them. Most were easy to remember, but the frequencies for the college radio stations (the best source for alternative and new music) sometimes sometimes slip my mind. So here they are, in order of distance from my house:

Luzerne County Community College - WSFX
https://www.luzerne.edu/studentlife/wsfx/
89.1
105.5

Wilkes University - WCLH
https://beta.wclh.org/
90.7

King's College - WRKC
https://wrkc.kings.edu/
88.5

College Misericordia- Cougar Radio (online only)
http://www.cougarradio.net/

University of Scranton - WUSR
http://www.scranton.edu/academics/cas/communication/wusr/index.shtml
99.5

Marywood University - VMFM
http://demo1.marywood.edu/
91.7

Storm surge and your car

Florence is coming. This huge hurricane will make landfall sometime in the next day or so, and will bring with it storm surge - a piling-up of seawater that will cause flooding to a depth of as much as nine feet.

Even if you think that you're safe from the storm, even if you're in a reinforced building well above flood level, one thing you need to ask yourself is: where is your car parked?

For most people, the answer will be "on the street." And that's a very bad place for it to be. At the very least you can expect your vehicle to be flooded, sustaining waster damage that will leave a soggy, smelly mess. A little more water - two to three feet, according to the Weather Channel - can float your car. More than that will flood the engine compartment and the entire inside of your car. This isn't just water we're talking about - this is salty sea water, probably full of particles of sand. In addition to the damage to your paint job, salt water can interact unpleasantly with your car's battery, electrical system, and fuel. After Coney Island and other parts of New York City were flooded by Superstorm Sandy back in 2012, numerous inundated vehicles shorted out and caught fire - and sometimes exploded.

Not every car flooded by storm surge will be destroyed. Some will be cleaned up and put back on the market without any information regarding their flood-damaged status. Just as after Sandy, for the next few years buyers of used cars will need to carefully inspect all vehicles for tell-tale signs of flood damage.

It would be so much easier for people in the danger zone to avoid all this by getting themselves - and their cars - to the safety of higher ground. Please consider it.

The South Valley Parkway is complete...ish

It's well ahead of schedule, even though it feels like it took forever to bring to this point, but as of Friday, August 31, 2018, the South Valley Parkway in Hanover Township and Nanticoke is finally complete. Mostly. Sort of.

It's an odd road, built for...reasons. The most immediate and explicit is to serve as a bypass for Middle Road, the ancient two-lane road that was the original highway from Wilkes-Barre to Nanticoke and beyond. The longstanding problem with this road is that it channels increasingly fast and heavy traffic through numerous residential areas between Wilkes Barre and Luzerne County Community College. The South Valley Parkway, in theory, will allow this traffic to bypass Middle Road onto a two-lane parkway with numerous turning circles and no residences.

There are other reasons, of course. A project of this magnitude wouldn't have been undertaken just to reduce traffic past a few dozen houses. Many of those reasons are explained in this environmental assessment from January 2013.

I've ridden almost the whole thing. It is convenient in some ways, and the turning circles are a smooth, safe, and efficient means of operating an intersection without anyone necessarily having to come to a complete stop. In other ways it feels like a long cut to nowhere. In appearance it seems oddly asymmetrical and aesthetically wrong, with stretches that seem to narrow and widen without reason and odd sections along Middle Road now isolated, in a "you can't get there from here" sense.

An example: Lower Askam, the western border of Hanover Township with Nanticoke, is now effectively cut off from Nanticoke. Middle Road heading west towards Nanticoke now abruptly terminates in a right-curved exit that takes you onto the South Valley Parkway headed east. The only way to continue into Nanticoke would be to follow the Parkway east to the first turning circle, turn around 180 degrees, and head back along the parkway towards Nanticoke - about a two mile detour. That, or make a left-hand turn off the right-curving exit, a maneuver that is probably prohibited, tough no sign indicates this yet. In the east, Middle Road is interrupted by the removal of a bridge; drivers heading east must exit,take a bridge onto a turning circle, and then exit again across a bridge and back onto Middle Road.

The parkway is not officially finished yet. There is still one more roundabout to go, at the intersection of Middle Road and Prospect Street. I get the impression there may be some adjustments made to the newly-built parkway. And soon, if things go as planned, new industry - primarily warehouses and distribution centers - will move into the areas opened up by this construction. Will the South Valley Parkway be up to the task? Time will tell.

Following

I just recounted this story on a friend's Facebook post and decided to include it here for posterity:

I was driving into Nanticoke once. Guy was in front of me, driving slow. He turned left, I turned left. He drove straight for a few blocks, I drove straight for a few blocks. He turned left again, so did I. He pulled over to the side of the road and so did I. He got out of his car to angrily confront me, I got out of my car with my thermos and lunch bag, home from a day at work. He realized that I had basically followed him to my own house, got back in his car, and left.

Car adventures (written June 12, 2017)

Note, May 28, 2018: For some reason this post was never published. It seems to be incomplete, but maybe I ended it where I wanted to. I see no reason not to publish it, since it contains an important bit of personal history.

The draft of this post was originally dated June 12, 2017.


My mom and I were rear-ended at an active crosswalk while on the way to the vet two weeks ago, on May 31, 2017. (I stopped at a flashing yellow crosswalk to let a woman with a stroller cross. The truck behind us was following too close and too fast and disd't stop all the way in time.) The car took damage to the trunk and bumper. One rear light was damaged, and the left quarter-panel was bent slightly. We were belted, so we were fine, though my mom though my mom had her arm inside the pet carrier and got some bruises.

(NOTE, May 28, 2018: She actually did sustain some shoulder and back trauma, for which she is still getting physical therapy. I didn't suffer any long-term physical effects, though I now have an aversion to stopping at yellow lights, flashing crosswalks, or for ladies pushing baby strollers - you never know what kind of idiot is behind you.)

I took the car to a body shop recommended by my brother last Wednesday, June 7. They said that if they took it in right away they could get started right away, but if I waited to bring it in until Monday (today) they didn't know how long it might take. I dropped the car off and called the car rental place that was recommended by my family (at my mom's insistence, really.) But rather than coming there with a car, as everyone assured me they would, they came and picked me up to take me to the rental site - which was mostly in boxes, since they were about to move into a new location. In fact, they didn't have many cars to choose from: a BMW X3 luxury crossover SUV, or nothing. I took the car, hoping insurance would cover it for the week or so the car would be in the shop.

(It is a fine car, I am sure, for someone who appreciates all it has to offer. Pushbutton start. Backup camera. Unfathomable console features. A radio so complex that the entry in the owner's manual says, unhelpfully, "See owner's manual.")

The next day, June 8, I got a call from the body shop: getting the parts and repairing the car would take eight days. Longer than I hoped, but acceptable; I wouldn't be paying too much out-of-pocket for the 20% of the rental, even if we hit the insurance company's maximum of $500.00. Fine, I said. OK, they said. The car would be ready June 20th.

I hung up the phone and thought wait what.

I called them back, Yes, that would be eight business days. Twelve calendar days. Twelve car rental days.

I called the car rental place and told them there was no way in hell I could afford a BMW X3 luxury crossover SUV through June 20th. Did they have anything...smaller? Yes, they told me, something smaller would be in that afternoon. Stop by around 5:00.

I stopped by that afternoon to find even more of the location in boxes. The manager waited on me personally. He inspected the BMW, and let me know that they did indeed have something smaller that afternoon. An Audi. It would be the same price, of course, but it was decidedly smaller.

I drove off in the BMW. My weekend was over, and a shift-change shortened three-day week was about to begin.

Today, Monday, June 12, is my first "Saturday" of my new schedule. I called the body shop this morning. Yes, the car was still on schedule to be finished by the 20th. I checked the rental agency website and verified that yes, they did have an economy car available. I called them and told them I wanted to swap out the car. They advised me to come in around 3:00.

Before I returned it I took a few photos of the BMW. I walked around the car, carefully shooting it from each angle. Finished, I put down my camera and fumbled in my pocket for the key fob.

As I was standing there on the sidewalk a white van pulled up to the stop sign on the nearby cross-street. It lingered there, despite an absence of traffic. After a few seconds the door on the side slid open slightly, and someone in the back compartment - young and male, by the timbre of the voice - shouted a hearty "FUCK YOU!" The door then shut and the van drove off.

The tale of the BMW X3

(NOTE, May 28, 2018: According to this post, recently discovered in my drafts, I picked up the BMW on June 7 and swapped it out on June 12.)

I've written before about how, while taking our cat Bowie to the vet's on May 31, 2017 to find out why she kept vomiting every time she ate (it was because of an abdominal tumor, part of the cancer that would kill her in seventeen days), my mom's car was rear-ended when we stopped for a woman pushing a baby stroller across a crosswalk with a flashing yellow light - and the guy in the SUV behind us didn't.

The car was damaged, but driveable. It took more than a week to arrange to have the damage repaired. We didn't know how long repairs would take, and my insurance would only cover a total rental of, I think, $500.00. I went to one of the few rental agencies in the area, and found that they were preparing to move into a new location. Their vehicle options were limited. Only one vehicle was available, really - a BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle®. (Yes, apparently that term is a registered trademark.)

It was a bit more car than I am used to, considering that I spent twenty years driving a 1996 Toyota Tercel. The official website refers to its "intuitive controls," but I beg to differ. The inch-thick owner's manual came with an inch-thick supplement to explain how to use the radio. It took me several minutes to figure out how to turn the damned thing off - the vehicle, that is, not the radio. It simultaneously felt too big and too small. My first impression was that it looked like an oversized VW Golf, but driving it felt like I was navigating a yacht.

I only had the BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle® for two full a few days before I was able to take it back to swap it for a less expensive vehicle, a stripped-down Chevrolet Aveo that made my old Tercel seem spacious by comparison. But during that brief time together, I managed to have one preposterous adventure.

The day after we were hit, June 1, a new paving project began on the street in front of our house, the street where I usually park the car. There was a chronically empty spot in front of the house across the street facing the front of our house (the one that recently lost the shingle that came through our front window.) I parked the BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle® there, which meant that I could view this extremely expensive rental vehicle from the front door of our house.

Now, please understand: I am a stranger to many technological innovations in cars. In part this is because I do not trust them - or, rather, I do expect many of the electronic features on the car to cease functioning within the reasonable life expectancy of a car. Why have an electronic control for a window when a crank works just as well? Why have a pushbutton start for the ignition when a key works just fine and is more secure? Why use a key fob to unlock the doors remotely, and sometimes inadvertently?

After a few days of driving the BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle®, I was starting to get used to it. I had to make some peace with it, because I had tried to swap it for something smaller that day and could not. At the end of the day that day I parked the car across the street, dramatically used the key fob to lock it up as I was walking away, and then locked it again, just to be sure.

The next morning after I got up I looked out at the car. It was still there. It sure was a good-looking thing: glossy black paint job that was both dark and bright at the same time. Windows so clear they looked like they weren't even there. Why, I could see straight through the windows on the driver's side and the windows on the passenger's side like I was looking through plain air.

I didn't start work until a few hours later. Much of that time was spent tending to Bowie, giving her her medicine and syringes of food and water. About fifteen minutes before I had to be in work - it's a ten minute drive on a good day - I stepped out of the house, lunch bag and key fob in one hand, coffee thermos and jug of iced tea in the other. I had clapped my hat on my head before I walked out, but I left my coat in the house. It hadn't rained in days, and wasn't supposed to any time soon.

As I walked to the car, I was awfully glad it hadn't rained overnight. All of the windows were rolled down, and the sunroof was open.

How the hell did that happen? I thought. I don't have time for this crap. I started the car and rolled up the windows, and then began to fumble around looking for the controls for the sunroof as I drove. Nothing was intuitively obvious. A bunch of cryptic buttons were along the top edge of the windshield, the most obvious place for a sunroof control. This one didn't do anything, and this one didn't do anything, and this one...

Uh-oh. That one was marked "OnStar."

Within a few seconds I started to experience the consequences of my random button pushing. The headlights began to flash intermittently. The horn began to beep. An alarm screeched as I drove to work. 

"This is OnStar, how can I help you?" a voice asked from somewhere.

I explained, as frantically and pathetically as I could, what was going on, explaining that this was a rental vehicle and I had no idea how all the windows had gotten rolled down or how the sunroof had opened up or how to stop the alarms and I was just trying to get to work. The OnStar person had to put me on mute at least once, probably to let out screams of laughter at my predicament. Eventually they were able to explain how to close the sunroof. They also explained what had happened: I must have held the "lock" button on the key fob for an extended period, either when I was double-locking the car the evening before or possibly by pressing the button while it was in my pocket. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to create this functionality? Who would think that pressing and holding "lock" should cause all the windows to roll down and the sunroof to open?

The next day Eventually I was able to swap out the BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle® for a much less expensive, spacious, and and technologically sophisticated Chevrolet Aveo, with roll-up windows and a key for the doors and the ignition and no sunroof. It was quite a step down, but closer to what I was used to.

A few days later, on June 17, 2018, the repairs to my mom's car were complete - the same day Bowie died.

Scranton Fringe Festival StorySlam: Word to Your Mother

I was there at the beginning, for the very first one...the first Scranton StorySlam. The brainchild (and senior project) of Madeline Zoë McNichols, it took place on March 31, 2012 in the Penn Avenue location of the Vintage Theater. I only attended one StorySlam since then, the second one, held June 30, 2012 at the now-closed Banshee, but numerous others have been held over the last six years.

Since 2016, the Scranton StorySlams have fallen under the umbrella of the Scranton Fringe Festival, a multi-day, multi-venue arts festival which has recently come under fire from a single politician who questions why taxpayer funds should be used (in the form of grants) to fund the perverted arts.

On Saturday, May 12, the Scranton Fringe Festival presented another StorySlam, a Mothers' Day-themed night called "Word to Your Mother," held on the third floor of the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple - a huge venue that also happened to be presenting "Beautiful: The Carole King Story" on the same night. I drove there with a friend who was also one of the presenters, and I dropped her off in front of the Center and went off to find a parking space. (I finally found one over two blocks away. This will be important later.)

The ceiling of the lobby on the third floor is a work of art.

Decaying beauty: The paint is peeling and the illuminated clock is stuck at 7:50, but the room where the StorySlam was held is gorgeous.

Detail of the ceiling. Flower, squid, or something else?

Monica Noelle, founder of #BeKindScranton, tells a story of siblings lost, and mothers found.

Musician and D.J. Justin Pardo tells the story of how he disappointed his mother by nearly getting killed twice in one night.

Alicia Nordstrom tells her winning story of why you should always have the diaper bag with you.

Eight storytellers told their true tales of being mothers, adventures with their mothers, or the special relationship between mother and child. The walls of the third floor of the Scranton Cultural Center rocked with laughter and applause. It was a great night, and I wish a certain County Commissioner had been in attendance.

Window nook in small side stairwell.

The view from the third floor through ancient drawn sheet glass windows.

The Scranton Cultural Center.

The event drew to a close and the attendees headed out to their cars or to wait for rides, including from drivers in private cars driving for the currently-popular ride-sharing service Uber. I suggested that my friend, who recently had knee surgery, wait for me while I retrieve the car and pick her up. I hiked the two blocks - uphill this time - to where I had left the car, and was grateful to find it still there. I then wormed my way through the maze of one-way streets to get in a position to pick up my friend.

As I pulled up in front of the Scranton Cultural Center I saw that there were several cars lined up in front of it. I made my way to the front of the line and put on my flashers while I scanned the area for my friend. As I waited, I saw someone else smile and wave and begin to approach me. Who is this woman?, I wondered - and then I realized: she thought I was her ride. She thought I was there to pick her up. I frantically shook my head and, I think, locked the doors to keep this woman from getting in. Then I saw my friend approaching in the rear-view mirror from much further back in the line of cars. I unlocked the doors and let her in.

I was about to tell her the story of what had happened when she said, "I just tried to get into somebody else's car. It looked just like this one."

Nanticoke construction project update

The Nanticoke construction project is nearly 2/3 done, at least according to the original timeline. At least, assuming this isn't just the first phase of something bigger. Which it's beginning to feel like it is. The latest update:

Update, April 29, 2018: Kosciuszko Street Turning Circle opens to Espy Street and up to Prospect Street May 1; Prospect Street Turning Circle construction to begin. 
From the Nanticoke City Fire Department:
As per Kriger Construction, May 1st is the date set for the opening of the Kosciuszko St. Roundabout to have access to Espy St. into the Hanover section of the City and local traffic to homes located between Espy St. & Prospect St. With this opening, the intersection of Prospect St & Middle Rd. will be CLOSED to all traffic as construction will begin on the new roundabout.

This is a pretty big deal to me, personally. The Espy Street turning circle was the first one built, and it was a huge improvement. No longer did people turning left from Espy Street onto Middle Road need to accelerate to 70 mph from a standing stop just to avoid getting t-boned by people speeding down from Kosciuszko Street. It also gave people an opportunity to get in some practice for the additional turning circles which were coming.

Unfortunately, the Kosciuszko Street turning circle construction project cut me off from using the Espy Street turning circle, and along with the construction on Middle Road heading east from Kosciuszko, cut me off from another alternate route to work. Middle Road is still closed heading east, but I expect that will be the next part to open. Even so, I think that option will no longer exist.

Here is what Route 29 looked like prior to the construction project:

Here's what it looks like in the most recent satellite image on Google Maps:

The new road - labeled "South Valley Parkway" - is visible as a road arcing above and parallel to Route 29, interconnecting with it in a strange double arc and featuring three nearly random turning circles.

The Parkway will eventually connect with South Main Street / Middle Road on the left

But the question is, to what end? This was a hell of a lot of effort and expense to route traffic around a few dozen homes on Middle Road. Are there additional businesses moving into the area now opened up by this road? Will those be more warehouse and call center jobs, paying just over minimum wage? Will there be an effort to attract technologically sophisticated jobs to retain some of the thousands of college graduates who move out of Northeastern Pennsylvania each year? Or will, perhaps, a new prison be built in the area, as some have suggested?

And what else is going on in the area? A great many trees have been cut down recently near the Sans Souci Parkway. Why? And why are trees being cleared along a ridge on Plymouth Mountain, as though a road is going to be put there? Someone knows the answers, to be sure. But I don't. Not yet.

Snow on April second

In Polish communities, there's a tradition that the day after Easter is "dunking day," also known as "dyngus day." The goal of the day is to dump water onto some unsuspecting person's head. For...reasons. It's never been a thing for my family or anyone I know. Don't ask me.

The date of Easter is determined by the first Sunday following the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox. It can be as early as March 22, and as late as April 25. Getting water dumped on your head probably isn't so bad when Easter falls late in the season, in the warmer part of the Spring, at least when compared to the colder, earlier part of the season.

I stayed up wayyy too late last night watching the live performance of "Jesus Christ Superstar" on NBC. I enjoyed it tremendously. John Legend was quietly understated as a tired Jesus nearing the end of his ministry; Alice Cooper was subdued as a restrained and menacing Herod; but for me, Ben Daniels (Blue Leader from Rogue One) gave the most striking performance as Pontius Pilate, singing and acting circles around everyone else on stage. The show ended around 10:30 PM, and I didn't fall asleep until about 11:00 PM, giving me a solid four hours to sleep before my alarm went off at 3:00 AM.

I let myself stay in bed until 3:30 AM. Then I dragged myself out of bed, made my ablutions, fed the cats. Opened the front door to retrieve the newspaper.

The sky was celebrating dunking day for us.

We were warned that there might be snow. It would be heavier south of us, and west of us. We could expect an inch or so before it stopped around 9:00 AM. But what was coming down was fast and hard and wet-looking. The roads and sidewalks were clear, melting the snow as fast as it came down, but already close to an inch had accumulated on the lawn and the shrubs.

The next time I looked out, the snow had begun to accumulate on the streets and sidewalks.

I ate my breakfast, assembled my lunch, hurried into the shower. Got dressed, suited up for the weather, left the house ten minutes before I usually begin my twelve-minute commute.

The car was covered with nearly five inches of wet snow. I cleaned it as quickly as I could, but lost several minutes of travel buffer.

The roads were unplowed. Who would have thought we would need to have snowplows running at 5:40 AM on April 2nd, the day after Easter? Cars cane to a complete stop at the top of the hill on Kosciuszko Street that leads out of town, then slowly inched their way down. No need to crash into one of Nanticoke's two traffic lights.

The highway was even worse. With an SUV on my tail, I turned onto Route 29 to head to work. I needed to drive in the tracks of the cars in front of me, like slot racers following each other. Then the hypnosnow began, falling fast and hard enough that using high beams created a virtual whiteout.

I made it to work, almost on time. I was able to make up the missed time at the end of the day.

By then, the thick, wet snow had almost all melted away.

Big doings in (and near) little Nanticoke

From 1992 through 2012, with an interruption in 2007 and another in 2010, I commuted some thirty-five miles to work from Nanticoke to Olyphant, PA via Interstate 81.  The commute took anywhere from forty minutes to infinity, depending on traffic, construction, and accidents. It is entirely possible that I am still stuck in one or more traffic jams on 81 right now, and my whole life since then has been nothing more than a dream fueled by exhaust fumes.

BE PREPARED TO STOP. Also, there's a tractor-trailer on fire up ahead. Have a nice day!

Since early 2012 my commute has been much shorter - five miles, requiring about ten minutes of travel time. Unlike my previous commute, this one has several alternate routes, all of varying distance but all essentially the same travel time. If there's an accident or construction or a random bike race or some other impediment on one of them, I can quickly and easily switch to an alternate route and still make it to work on time.

All that is about to end.

Times Leader: Work begins on long-awaited roundabouts in Nanticoke (January 31, 2016)

One of the most controversial recent road projects in northeastern Pennsylvania has been the revamping of the exit for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport (AVP, in travel professional lingo) to and from I-81. The exit was workable as it was, if a bit awkward; people trying to get to some locations off the exit would have to make a U-turn at or near the airport. Someone had the bright idea to install a roundabout, or traffic circle, at the exit, so people getting on and off of 81 could have smooth access to all of the places that you can get to from the exit, and could easily access 81 north and south from those places. Yeah. That didn't work out. Whether from disastrously poor planning that made the roundabout too tight and narrow to be useful to the tractor-trailers that sometimes need to take that exit, or from the general absence of signs letting drivers know which way to go to get where they want to go (instead, the signs seem to wordlessly indicate "cyclopses this way, aliens that way"), or perhaps the general lack of usefulness of a roundabout in this situation, the project has been a disaster from the moment it was opened to the public.

The new project is about to place six roundabouts between me and where I work.

Nanticoke (left) and Hanover Industrial Park (right). All maps from Google Maps.

Nanticoke is a small, densely-packed city bordered by fairly heavily forested lands that comprise various townships. The biggest and most relevant in this situation is Hanover Township, which covers most of the area to the south and east of Nanticoke up to Wilkes-Barre. Nanticoke is a "bedroom community": people live there and sleep there but generally do not work there, owing to the general lack of industry within the city limits. There used to be businesses, a cigar factory and a throwing mill and a few others, but most of them moved away in the 1950's. Now most residents have to commute to work, whether thirty-five miles or just five miles.

I live near the place marked "Greater Nanticoke High School" on the center left of the map above. I work in the industrial park on the center right of the image. There are several ways I can get to work. The orange line representing Route 29 looks like it would be the most convenient, but it isn't, due to relatively heavy traffic on it and a fairly complex off-ramp interface. My preferred route involves taking the road marked 2010 on the map, a lightly-traveled two-lane road that runs right into the industrial park. On the return commute I prefer to take Dundee Crossing Road, which is on the center of the map above and runs from South Main Street (Middle Road) to the Sans Souci Parkway. This isn't the shortest or most convenient road, but it is the prettiest, and one that has fond memories for me. The trees along that road form arches over it, creating a forested tunnel of sorts. Late afternoon sunlight in the Summer and Fall creates beautiful effects. The road passes under an old, disused bridge not far from Middle Road and through a tunnel near the Sans Souci Parkway. My grandfather used to take us for rides in his blue Dodge Dart along that road, and would always beep the horn as we passed through the tunnel - something I still do once in a while.

Nanticoke is fairly tightly-packed. Its boundaries enclose a lot of houses, some schools, Luzerne County Community College, a supermarket and some shops, some river flood plain, and a historical relic called Concrete City. It had an industrial park put in once upon a time, but no industry actually moved into it, and it now is simply a long access road that leads to some houses that are technically outside of the city limits. But the map above shows several spots just to the east of the city that have been stripped of trees. These look to be new industrial parks being planned in Hanover Township. But what sort of industry will they bring? More warehouse and call center jobs paying $10 - $12 an hour?

Map showing Nanticoke city boundaries and surrounding area

In any event these industrial parks and the jobs they bring will lie outside of Nanticoke's city limits, and therefore will provide no tax revenue to the city itself. Yet they will cause significant problems for the people of Nanticoke, at least over the next three years.

Three turning circles will be added at the intersections of Middle Road and Prospect, Espy, and Kosciuszko Streets

Three of the six turning circles coming to the area will be along the road in the lower left of this photo. The area enclosed in the square-ish region is Luzerne County Community College, bordered by Kosciuszko Street on the east, Prospect Street on the west, Middle Road on the south, and - well, on the north it's bordered by a gully, but for neatness' sake let's say Field Street on the north. Turning circles will be placed at the intersections of Middle Road with Prospect Street, Espy Street (at the middle bottom of the above image, heading south off the bottom of the picture), and Kosciuszko Street. In addition there will likely be an entrance to the new access road - essentially a bypass from Route 29 to Kosciuszko Street that will relieve traffic from the heavily-populated Middle Road - at the left of center of the image above. (A road has already been cleared there, and heads into some of the cleared areas on the upper right of the image.) Three turning circles in such a small area - there will barely be a quarter-mile between each one - seems excessive.

An additional three turning circles will be added, one near Dundee Crossing Road (right of center of map), another where Route 29 intersects Middle Road / South Main Street (Wilkes-Barre), and a third midway between (just to the left of the lime green square)

Three more turning circles will be added outside of the Nanticoke city limits. One will be near Dundee Crossing Road, right of center in the image above. Another will be near where Route 29 intersects Middle Road / South Main Street. A third will apparently service the as-yet-unconstructed industrial park, and will be somewhere to the left of the lime-green square on the center-right of the image above.

Now the bad news: the road closings.

Times Leader: Road closures for the South Valley Parkway in Nanticoke and Hanover Township to begin in April (February 17, 2016)

• Dundee Road closed from May 2016 to May 2019 (Reopened November 11, 2017)

• Espy Street closed from April to August 2016 (reopened December 2, 2016)

SEE MARCH 30, 2017 UPDATE FOR REVISIONS
UPDATE, March 30, 2017: 
• Middle Road, from Kosciuszko Street to Dundee Road will be closed to all traffic, beginning on Monday, April 3rd. This closure and related detours will be in place until November 2017
• Kosciuszko Street will be closed July 6, 2017 and be reopened in November 2017.
(As of January 20, 2018, Kosciuszko Street is still closed at Middle Road, and Middle Road is closed from Birchwood - accessible only from Middle Road coming east from Espy Street - to Spencer Lane / Great Valley Boulevard.)
• Prospect Street will be closed in the summer of 2018 and reopen in November 2018.

• Prospect Street closed from March to October 2017

• Middle Road west of Koscuizsko Street closed September 2017 to August 2019

• Koscuizsko Street closed from March to June 2019

• Middle Road at exit 2 over state Route 29, closed August to October 2019

I'm not sure how extensive these closing will be. I doubt "Kosciuszko Street closed September 2017 to August 2019" means that residents of Kosciuszko Street will have to park their cars blocks away and walk home. More likely it means "intersection of Kosciuszko Street and Middle Road, no traffic allowed past..." - well, where? There's a new housing development right near that intersection. Will the residents be able to get to their houses? Will there be access to LCCC from the Kosciuszko Street entrance? Will students at the high school and elementary schools on Kosciuszko Street still be able to get to school? Probably. But I don't want to presume too much about what this project might bring.

Dundee Crossing Road, closed May 2016 through May 2019

The biggest loss for me will be the closure of Dundee Crossing Road for three years, from May 2016 to May 2019. I will miss that road. I drove on it very little until I started at this job, and then took it initially for the sense of nostalgia. I have become fond of it, and enjoy the ride. I don't know what the next three years will bring, and I don't know if I'll have any need of this particular road when it re-opens in May 2019. (Reopened on or before November 11, 2017; see update below.)

All this is just at the initial stages. Some construction has taken place already, taking advantage of the unusually warm Winter we've enjoyed until recently. But projects like this can easily take much longer than the original timeline indicates. As with many things, we'll have to wait and see how things work out.

UPDATE, February 26, 2016: Dundee Road is now closed. More than two months ahead of schedule.

UPDATE, March 9, 2016: The Larmel Inn at the corner of Espy Street and Middle Road has been torn down.

UPDATE, March 29, 2016: There is a detour in place for Espy Street, which is now closed to through traffic.

UPDATE, April 1, 2016: Middle Road will be closed at Espy Street starting April 4. This closure is scheduled to last through September.

UPDATE, December 8, 2016: The roundabout on Middle Road and Espy Street opened on December 2, 2016. (The original schedule stated it would be closed through August 2016. A later schedule put it at October 2016.) Next phase of construction on Middle Road should begin in March 2017 when the Prospect Street project begins.

UPDATE, March 30, 2017: Kosciuszko Street detour is in place. Revised schedule per this article:

• Middle Road will be closed and a detour will be in place beginning April 3. The road will reopen in November.
• Kosciuszko Street will be closed July 6 and be reopened in November.
• Prospect Street will be closed in the summer of 2018 and reopen in November 2018.

From the article:

Utility work on Kosciuszko Street will slow traffic this week, and Luzerne County Community College posted on Facebook that Middle Road will be closed to traffic due to construction of a roundabout. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation notified the college that Middle Road will be closed from Kosciuszko Street to the Lower Askam section of Hanover Township as early as April 3, according to the post.

From LCCC's Facebook page:

IMPORTANT ADVISORY: MIDDLE ROAD CLOSING THIS MONDAY
Please be advised that Middle Road, from Kosciuszko Street to Dundee Road will be closed to all traffic, beginning on Monday, April 3rd. This closure and related detours will be in place until November of 2017 as part of the construction of the new South Valley Parkway.

UPDATE, July 11, 2017:  Kosciuszko Street is now closed at Middle Road. It is open to the Grateful Roast coffee shop, but there is no access to Birchwood from Kosciuszko Street. Birchwood can be accessed via Middle Road through Prospect Street, though the main entrance to the parking lot is closed and access is now through a temporary paved entrance. Closure is scheduled through November 2017, when the new roundabout (the second of five - or is it six?) will be opened. LCCC has signs at both the Kosciuszko Street and Prospect Street entrances advising that there is NO THRU TRAFFIC through their parking lot.

UPDATE, November 11, 2017: Dundee Road is open again. There have been changes. There are a lot fewer trees than there used to be, there are now two overpasses where there was once one, and one old disused railroad bridge has been removed. I'm glad I got some photos when I did.

This old bridge, shown in a photograph from October 20, 2016, is now gone. Glad I got some photos of it when I did. A lot of the trees around it seem to be gone, too, but these will regrow in time.

UPDATE, January 20, 2018: From the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice: Section of South Valley Parkway will open Monday

Part of the South Valley Parkway in Hanover Twp. will open at 11 a.m. Monday (January 22, 2018.) 

The section to open occupies a stretch of land northwest of the South Cross Valley Expressway/state Route 29. 

It runs from a connection off of South Main Street near Exit 2 of the expressway to a newly constructed roundabout west of there. Two ramps near that roundabout connect to the South Cross Valley Expressway between exits 2 and 3. 

Further west of that roundabout, one lane of traffic will be open on a bridge over the expressway and Dundee Road, leading to another roundabout. 

The planned roadway continues to Middle Road and Kosciuszko Street in Nanticoke, but that section remains under construction. It is scheduled to open sometime in 2019, spokesman Mike Taluto said.

Update, February 14, 2018: The Kosciuszko Street turning circle is partially open, allowing access to Birchwood Nursing Home and Middle Road west to Espy Street and beyond. Middle Road east is still inaccessible. However, signs still indicate that the road is closed, detours are still in place, and signs from Espy Street indicate "LOCAL TRAFFIC ONLY."

(Note: Eventually this was changed to "ROAD CLOSED," as the road was reduced to a dirt road and then repaved.)

Update, April 29, 2018: Kosciuszko Street Turning Circle opens to Espy Street and up to Prospect Street May 1; Prospect Street Turning Circle construction to begin. 
From the Nanticoke City Fire Department:
As per Kriger Construction, May 1st is the date set for the opening of the Kosciuszko St. Roundabout to have access to Espy St. into the Hanover section of the City and local traffic to homes located between Espy St. & Prospect St. With this opening, the intersection of Prospect St & Middle Rd. will be CLOSED to all traffic as construction will begin on the new roundabout.

The Mixtape

I lost my clip-on sunglasses in my car yesterday. While fishing around on the sides of the passenger seat, I found an old mixtape tucked between the seat and the door.

Side A is labeled 10/24/93, while Side B was apparently recorded a week later on 10/31/93 - Halloween. Nearly twenty-two years ago.

I plucked off some clumps of dust, blew out stuff from inside, and tightened up the tape on the wheels. Will it still play?, I wondered. Will it just ruin my tape deck? My 1996 Toyota Tercel has a tape deck. Not the original tape deck, which gave up the ghost after a few years. This is a replacement unit, which I bought in early 2002 prior to my trip to Salem, Massachusetts. I haven't played tapes in in in many years, though I have more recently used a cassette adapter to patch in music from a portable CD player.

I popped it in. The familiar hiss began to pour out of the speakers. Then, the old familiar opening guitar riffs of U2's The Fly.

I was heading into Wilkes-Barre to take advantage of a coupon from Pet Supplies Plus. The coupon expired the next day, Labor Day, and I had plans for that day that would probably keep me from getting there before closing time. As I crawled along Hazle Street The Fly ended and the tape went silent. Broken? No, I remembered what song was next, and remembered it had a long, slow, quiet buildup.  I cranked the volume and was soon blasting P.J. Harvey's Rid of Me as I drove along Northampton Street. This was followed by a live version of High by The Cure and Metallica's version of Stone Cold Crazy from a Freddy Mercury tribute album. I wound up in a turn-only lane as the next song started up, something I didn't recognize, a soft, country-ish version on The Cure's In Between Days. (I had to look this up: it was John Eddie from an unreleased Cure tribute album, instead put out on Rubaiyat, an album celebrating Elektra Records' 40th anniversary.)

This took me to the pet store, where I picked up cat litter and cat treats (two different types of each, all on sale.)

Pulling out of the parking lot I heard a Led Zeppelin song whose name I can't recall and whose lyrics I could not decipher. (Fun fact: about as much time had passed between the time this song was recorded and the time I put it on the mixtape as has passed between the making of the mixtape and now.) This was followed by Whiskey Train by Procul Harum, Come Around by Sugar, and made it back home listening to Finest Worksong by REM.

Coming up next is a song by My Bloody Valentine and another by U2. Then on to Side B, and more songs I liked enough to put on a mixtape.

It's weird listening again to the music I was listening to when I was twenty-five years old. Some of the songs have held up, some have not. I am someone who recognizes and keeps things of lasting value, but I do not believe in wallowing in nostalgia. If I were to make a mixtape today, what songs would I put on it? What would it sound like in 2037, when (if I live so long) I would be sixty-nine years old?