Stuff on the Road.....

Specificity in Reporting

2006-11-10T17:36:00.000-08:00

Wow, traffic reporters sure can be specific. Joe McConnell was giving me the update this morning. It was friggin' early -- around 7:00am (I had an early meeting), so I didn't have to deal with too many cars on the road. But I still enjoy the reports.

This morning, Joe said traffic was backed up somewhere in the East Bay because of a fiberglass ladder blocking two lanes in the road. Not just any ladder, but a fiberglass ladder..... I wonder if it was open or closed. I like to think it was open and someone was climbing somewhere.

I'm Back.....

2006-11-08T20:22:00.000-08:00

I know it's been more than two months since I've posted, and trust me, I feel guilty about the lapse. But I'm back now, and I am committing to updating at least once a week.

I've been sick with the flu since Monday, so I haven't been driving much this week. But I have seen and heard about a lot in the last couple of months, so I'll tell you about some of my favorites.

I was listening to Morning Edition on my commute in recently and the traffic report told me that traffic was slow because a vacuum was blocking one of the middle lanes. I can understand how lawn equipment falls off a gardener's truck, but how does a vacuum end up in the middle of the road? I don't know if it was a Dyson, but I like to think it was, since they suck so well (at least according to that guy in the commercials). I imagine it looked like this:

One thing I did see was a Yankees hat. This was shortly after they lost in a pathetic way to the Tigers in the first round of the playoffs. So while I also thought about throwing my hat on the floor in digust, I refrained. This is what it looked like, but without A-Rod's head. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Hats, Hats, Hats

2006-08-23T22:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, it was all hats this morning. But before even seeing the hats, I saw a broom head. You think someone was trying to sweep the freeway, but got really pissed off at how dirty it was and slammed the broom against the center median, breaking off the head? I don't know..... Just a thought......

So as I pondered this thought, I continued to drive in the left lane with an eye on the shoulder to see what other treasures I might spot. And I saw not one, not two, but three baseball hats within a few miles of each other. The first was a black and gray camo hat -- I couldn't really make out a logo. The second was faded black Giants cap with the orange letters (let's be honest, they really aren't playing that well this season), and the third was a faded red one with white lettering.

If they were huge hats (compared to the size of the cars on the road), then it could have looked like this:

So that made for an interesting morning commute, but the traffic report on the ride home gave me a good visual as well. Dana Fields (the evening traffic reporter on KQED) shared the news of a concrete spill on one of the local Bay Area freeways. If I had to picture a concrete spill, I think it would look like this (but probably not with a toy truck).....

Pillows Be Gone

2006-08-22T10:39:00.000-07:00

I had a typical commute home on Friday. I left work at about 4:30, and of course, hit the Friday afternoon traffic on 101N. As I meandered up the freeway at about 30mph, I started to look at the left shoulder (I was in the left lane), and I noticed the decorative pillows were gone! Over the weekend, someone must have decided to add accents to their home! I did see the football and the chair/sofa cushion, which was now much dirtier than it had been.

I've created a visual for you below. (Again, please imagine the cushion without the rest of the chair.)

Crap Galore

2006-08-18T19:24:00.000-07:00

Wow. Today's drive home from work was a treasure trove of crap. It started with me listening to the traffic report and hearing about a camper shell blocking the left lane of some Bay Area freeway and causing a backup. If a camper shell fell off your truck, wouldn't you hear it? Maybe you would get it?

Below is my version of what the camper shell on the freeway would look like.

So I only heard about the camper shell on the KQED traffic report. I actually saw several other interesting things on the highway shoulder on my drive home. They included two decorative pillows -- one gray velvet and one white -- as well as a white chair or sofa cushion. Do you think someone was slowing tossing their furniture out of the car window? Maybe the culprits got tired of throwing furniture and they decided to throw something more appropriate. About a mile after the pillow action, I saw a perfectly good football.

Taking pictures while driving can be difficult, so my re-enactment is below. But imagine that it's just the seat cushion from the chair (hard to find a good image of a white sofa/chair cushion).

It Does Get Chilly in the Summer Here.....

2006-08-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

Today I saw a blanket on the road as I was driving to work. It was on the shoulder, so it wasn't stopping any traffic, although it was red. It looked clean and nice, like the kind of thing you might want to curl up with on your couch on a cold, rainy Sunday.

This was on the freeway, not by one of the exit ramps, where homeless people make their homes. Maybe the road was cold?

Below is a re-enactment. (It was hard to get a real photo while driving 60mph.)

Intro to Stuff on the Road.....

2006-08-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

I recently moved to San Francisco, after 11 years in New York City. I work about 20 miles south of SF, and this is the first time in my life that I've had a drive commute to work (for more than a summer job). I used to walk or take the subway/bus, and I miss that. Now I drive the 20 miles there and back every day, and I listen to NPR (either KQED or KALW) on my commute. Not only do I get the news, but I get the traffic report as well. There seem to be a lot of random things in the road. I can understand the periodic hubcap, tire shreds, even bumpers. But at least once a week, I hear about really random things. So I thought I'd share.

Today, there was the report of a shovel in the middle road, causing large traffic backups on the commute home. There's no snow -- it's August -- and that freeway doesn't have any current construction. How did it get there?