Day 180 and I feel like crap.

This past week has been a dog! I started feeling the beginnings of a cold coming on on Sunday night and it just progressively worse! Tuesday was the horrible and I ended up leaving work to go home. Wednesday, I called in and potatoed all day. Yesterday, I came in to work and left early a couple of hours after lunch. Needless to say it's been a very low mileage week. Only a mile each day.

Today, I almost didn't make it in. But after a good, hot shower. I felt a bit better and decided to try and ride it out. Boy, was that almost a bad decision!

As you may have heard, we are having a so called "Super Storm" on the west coast. It has not stopped raining since around 3 this morning. I don't remember it raining that long since the floods of 1995. I wasn't in California when that occurred, but it was all over the news in Phoenix when it got really bad. A few calls to family at the time informed me of some problems in Salinas, and some major flooding in the Watsonville area. Highway 1 in Watsonville had barrells and other flotsam all over it for a several days.

I've heard stories from several growers here on the farm about some crazy flash floods that nearly took out several grow houses. Those problems have been long fixed. But when weather gets bad like this, you always see the maintenance crews zipping all over the farm making sure all the fixes are working.

And this morning as I was coming in to work, I could'a pinched out a diamond coming through one of the highway construction zones! It was so bad there that with a bit of planning and the proper vehicle, you could actually go skiing. There's an overpass being built in the area and there is a temporary road through that winds like a mofo. It's a clusterfuck waiting to happen. And I think it may happen today. It almost happened in front of me and I probably would'a shit my pants when it happened.

I like to believe I'm a cautious driver. Yes, I do have a heavy foot at time. But only when I know I can be safe about it. That construction zone is recommended highway speed or less for me ALL THE TIME! I've seen to many near-hits in that area not to have at least several (as in 6) car-lengths in front of me. It's a 55 mph road and that's where I usually sit, sometimes less. It can get bad there. Too many morons thinking it's a proper road. There are concrete barriers on both sides, so no way to veer away if something in front of you happens. You either have plenty of room in front of you or excellent, stop-on-a-dime brakes . . . and pray the driver behind you doesn't plow into you.

I'm also not a nervous driver. I'm fairly cool-headed and try not to be in a hurry. Plan ahead and all that. I'm not a granny-driver . . . except for today. And I am certain that if I took that road like I normally would on a dry day, it would'a been a baaaaad start to the day.

It was coming down pretty hard when I got to 101. It's 65 mph, there and I was driving around 60 mph. So was everyone around me . . . except for this big rig coming up behind us in the fast lane. Easily going 80 mph. Everyone got out of the way. As we were coming up to the construction area, everyone slowed way the fuck down to around 40 . . . waiting to see what would happen when the truck entered.

All you saw was this huge wall of water go over the big rig and the driver desperately try to control the death machine. It was ALL OVER both lanes and road up one of the barricades and came back down and . . . just kept going . . . at a much more reasonable speed. I thought the dude was fucked. And I'm glad everyone driving near was aware of what could'a and did happen. The barricade seemed to have held it's position, with only a tire mark riding up it.

Everyone was going really slow through the area until we got to the highway proper again and then everyone sped up to 55 again. Great way to start the day.

GD

p.s.
too lazy to check. run smiley :)