They’re finally paving the street.<\/p>\n
I came home from Mammoth two weeks ago to a note in my mailbox.\u00c2\u00a0 With a chart that was almost too much to comprehend.\u00c2\u00a0 Detailing the paving schedule for my neighborhood.<\/p>\n
They grooved out the street at the end of the alley last week.\u00c2\u00a0 You know what it’s like driving on those.\u00c2\u00a0 You get the washboard effect and wonder if you’ll get rim damage.\u00c2\u00a0 But in front of my house…\u00c2\u00a0 The day never arrived.<\/p>\n
Then Monday trucks started to appear.\u00c2\u00a0 But there wasn’t much grinding, very little grooving.\u00c2\u00a0 I was waiting for that routing sound, which presaged laying down a new coat of asphalt.\u00c2\u00a0 But I never heard it.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I went out to retrieve the "Wall Street JournaL" this morning, I was confronted with smoke and dust, and the sound of heavy equipment.\u00c2\u00a0 I leaned into the street and saw a row of fresh asphalt.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of like the lump of dirt construction workers leave behind when they dig a trench.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I went out to dispose of some newspapers just now, I was confronted with quietude.\u00c2\u00a0 Could they be done?<\/p>\n
Then a pickup truck whizzed by.\u00c2\u00a0 I decided to take a closer look.<\/p>\n
The side he was driving on was still clear, but on my side of the street the asphalt pile had been flattened, into a brand new roadway.\u00c2\u00a0 I looked into the distance, a block in either direction I saw workers.\u00c2\u00a0 But right in front of me the street was now empty.<\/p>\n
And then I smelled it.<\/p>\n
I’d forgotten asphalt even had a smell.<\/p>\n
I had to get closer.\u00c2\u00a0 A foot away I could see the pattern.\u00c2\u00a0 Of stones and oil.\u00c2\u00a0 I had the impulse to touch it.\u00c2\u00a0 The kind that gets little kids writing their names in fresh concrete.\u00c2\u00a0 But was it still hot?\u00c2\u00a0 How long does asphalt stay hot.<\/p>\n
And then it came pouring over me.\u00c2\u00a0 Summers growing up.\u00c2\u00a0 When they paved streets in my neighborhood.\u00c2\u00a0 After school had let out, when you got up early and immediately went outside in the fresh air.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d stand there in my shorts and t-shirt, watching the trucks go by.\u00c2\u00a0 And then there’d be this fresh layer of roadway.\u00c2\u00a0 Which would take a few days to cure.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point where we could skateboard on it when we were older.<\/p>\n
I thought of my old house.\u00c2\u00a0 How my mother doesn’t live there anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 And then "Same Old Lang Syne" started playing in my head.<\/p>\n
Just for a moment I was back at school I’ll never be that young again.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ll never have my whole life in front of me.\u00c2\u00a0 But for five minutes today, I felt like little Bobby Lefsetz of Fairfield, Connecticut.\u00c2\u00a0 Dazzled by the wonders of everyday life.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They’re finally paving the street. I came home from Mammoth two weeks ago to a note in my mailbox.\u00c2\u00a0 With a chart that was almost too much to comprehend.\u00c2\u00a0 Detailing the paving schedule for my neighborhood. They grooved out the street at the end of the alley last week.\u00c2\u00a0 You know what it’s like driving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-7l","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
And felt that old familiar pain
And as I turned to make my way back home
The snow turned into rain<\/em><\/p>\n