There’s two entrances into our neighborhood in Iowa City. There’s one major road that takes you into the city and onto campus. Takes you out of the city and away from campus too, I suppose. This road is Rochester.
Friends, I’m sorry to tell you that Rochester has been closed for the foreseeable future. The Iowa City website insists that the road construction will be finished in November. I’m suspicious. I’ve yet to see anybody constructing anything that resembles a road. Instead, fleets of oversized trucks are parked on the streets in our neighborhood, making the usable roads almost unusable.
These are dire times, friends. We’re stranded. Send construction workers. Send help.
***
As always, I’m mostly kidding. It’s not that bad. But it’s a little annoying.
We drive the boys to school in the morning. Because there aren’t buses. Neighborhood schools in Iowa City don’t have buses, and we’re just a little far to walk every morning. So I’m a bus driver again this year. A CRV driver, I guess.
It would take about one minute to get to school if Rochester were open. Rochester, as I’ve established, is not open. The detour adds about 10 minutes of annoying driving to our trip. I’ve yet to say the F-word as I weave in and out of traffic, avoiding the fleets of parked trucks. But I can’t promise that will last.
It would take about two minutes to get to campus for me if Rochester were open. Alas. The detour adds 100 minutes of annoying driving to my trip. Just kidding, but sometimes it feels like that.
Who, in the name of Herky the Hawkeye, thought it would be a good idea to shut down a major road on the week that school starts?
Do you feel the road rage in my writing? Here, I’ll use an exclamation mark so you can experience the energy of driving with me in the morning: Exclamation mark! Or how about this? Exclamation marks!!!
And I’m really not joking about the trucks. It seems that, whenever I turn into the one available entrance into our neighborhood, there’s a a dump truck or a construction truck or a garbage truck idling along the side of the road, making passage impossible. Here is the sound I make when I see this trucks:
“Are you kidding me!!!”
Notice the exclamation marks.
***
I should be so lucky to only complain about road construction. This too, as my Jewish ancestors would remind me, shall pass.
The timing sucks though. We’re trying to get into the swing of school in a new place. And the minor slings and arrows leave a bitter taste. I can picture the rolling hills of Pennsylvania. The lack of traffic. The easy drive to school in the morning. Drop the boys off. Pick them up. All against the backdrop of green mountains. All things, as George Harrison would remind me, shall pass.
Rochester is closed. I’m sure it will open again. Hopefully by November. The detour is annoying. And I’ll be in the swing of things in no time. An Iowa City native celebrating the majestic glory of Herky the Hawkeye.
Samuel Jaye Tanner 