I was driving near Sacramento one weekday last month and at about 3:30 PM the traffic was so bad I pulled off the freeway, read a while, walked the dog and took a nap. If one left two car-lengths between themselves and the next guy a crowd thought I had been born to save them a place and they pulled in. One guy signalled, but only after cutting in 10 feet ahead of me. I started out again at 6:15 PM. It was still a God-awful mess. Starlings do a MUCH better job of travelling in a crowd than Californians.

Now, so help me Hannah! The next morning I have the TV on and there is the local news traffic report from somewhere in California. The guy is saying the traffic is running smoothly that morning even though the picture from a helicopter showed it was moving at 20 to 25 MPH across 5 to 6 lanes of highway. The helicopter then showed a toll plaza which was jammed as far as on could see.

The announcer says that it's not bad that morning, there is about a 15 minute wait. That after travelling I don't know how far at 22.5 MPH on a 6 lane highway.

I'm too old. The announcer was fairly young. I suppose they have never known anything else and to them that was "normal". The only way someone could live and work there would be the Mexican way - have a shop of some sort with an apartment above. A bicycle shop.

California could spend even more money on their highway system. There was still some green in a median, that needs to be filled in, and they could stack the lanes depending upon where one is getting off the thing. They don't need any more signs, but it would be nice to have big TV screens on the overpasses. One could watch a program, never missing a part, on their way home.

Talk about a lesson in gratitude. I don't live there.

Arf