land of the orange barrels

Madison Avenue Cleveland Ohio

I was looking at a fluff list. One of the insidious tricks that is played on the 'inner-nets' is to coax people to click multiple times for one story. I was caught on one of twenty things about life in Cleveland, a few were trivial sports related things (public financing for billionaire franchise owners was absent), some were universal and therefore not specific to Cleveland, but these six were related: parking, traffic, potholes, public transportation, traffic cameras, orange barrels.

As a people we expect convenience more than efficiency, and we deplore annoyances. If we leave our residences for anything that is not walked to, the chances for botherment are pretty probable. Travel and transportation are problematic. Public transportation has been sabotaged for decades.

Air travel is a herding process that finds new ways to extract money and patience. The measures after Osama's air assassins were successful are cumbersome, and those of passenger inspection almost totally worthless, and ridiculous. One failed attempt by an idiot with a 'shoe bomb', and everyone has to take off their shoes at the aeroport; of course that logic does not extend to the many mass murder scenes with 'assault rifles' or other guns.

Many people have not been in a plane; but few Americans have never been in a car. Here we are beset by difficult terrain. The Cleveland area salts its roads, and in winter it is possible for every day to have temperatures on both sides of freezing, a constant freeze-thaw cycle that creates rivers of asphalt chuckholes. Road and bridge repair leads to detours and reduced lanes, and a cascade of obstacles and forbidden travel zones are common. Rude drivers, idiot drivers, speed traps, cops, traffic cameras, orange barrels, road debris, badly timed stop lights... After navigation is complete, where can you park? Not there, no spots there, and there it is going to cost.

'Traffic enforcement', the Republicans do not believe in income taxes for the rich, someone has to pay. One hundred dollars here, two hundred there—in a 'free society' and encroaching complete surveillance. Some people are squeezed tight in where their money can go. All these bills, and then this extra one to pay, and this one always threatens with legal punishment. Where does one find EXTRA money to get back on course? And there are always the helpful idiot that sides with the establishment authority, "If you drove at the proper speed, you wouldn't have got a ticket". Their sanguinity often disappears when they open a lettter from out-of-state.

With M.A.D.D., and the DUI/DWI, police and courts hunt with a vengeance. There is no similar M.A.D.D. organisation for the gun murderers, yet the extreme propaganda against alcohol blood level of  > .005% is now accepted without debate. Hypocrisy and hindrance. A partial solution, drink at home; but that is one of the reasons people go out (so to avoid home). Still it is a good idea, and crying for saloon owners is not necessary. Still the municipalities and their police will hunt for party goers. Paying for the music of the blue siren could buy new instruments for a high school's horn section.

Cleveland is a good place to call 'Home', and stay there. Going anywhere is [look for a synonym for "pain in the ass"].