496 is the east-west artery that keeps traffic pumping across town. I went into a brief period of denial, but then I had to cope with the closure. It was a pain, but I went on. Once again, I found myself exploring alternate routes. I found that the next quickest was to take 127 south to I-96 and then follow it west to Martin Luther King Street. I would head north on MLK until I got to work. I was satisfied with this. Satisfied.
One morning, as I was driving to work, I noticed a new sign when I merged on to 127. It said that 127 would be reduced to one lane from May 29-June 29. It was then that I made the follow realization:
The Michigan Department of Transporation is run by monkeys. There are no real people working there. Only monkeys who throw darts at a board to decide where to spend taxpayer money in the form of road construction. I am saddened by this.
Flash forward to this morning: I was about to merge onto 127, when I saw that traffic was backed up as far as the eye could see in both directions. I decided to go through town. It's slower to go through town, but sometimes you just have to suck it up. This morning, I sucked it up. But I didn't like it. Not at all.
In all honesty, I could live down by Detroit. There could be year-round construction that would constantly hold me up. I could weep every morning on the way to work. Instead of a temporary inconvenience (Construction on 496 is scheduled to be completed sometime in November.) it would be a permanent fixture.
And maybe that would be easier.
But probably not.