It was already above 80 degrees when I stepped out on the front porch this morning. Warm and muggy, standard summertime faire. The extended forecast has rain back in the picture on Sunday before a string of higher probability days start next Wednesday.
Well my trip into town for Covid-19 testing was uneventful. Two hours round trip. I arrived 15 minutes early and by the time I moved thru the line my test was almost exactly done on schedule, not a normal medical experiance for me. And while it’s not an overly pleasant experience, it wasn’t as bad as it’s been represented. For that I thank the person giving me the swabbing, whomever he may be.
I’ve noticed something in my home bound trips from the doctor’s. Many years ago, I used to avoid the aggravation of rush hour traffic by driving the back roads home. Back then most of those back roads were gravel. Sometimes maintained, sometimes not so much. The main road in those days that took me the majority of the way was Almeda School Road. It was blacktop to the Harris County line and then became gravel.
Once Shadow Creek Ranch was under development they put a gate up and shut of access forcing me to jog around the closure. At about the same time Brazoria County went on a black tipping binge and started covering gravel with blacktop. It wasn’t long before you couldn’t find a gravel road anywhere in the county.
Once the subdivision was developed and the school district started building schools in the developing area. I began to notice that the old Almeda School Road now has an inordinate number of schools along it’s old length. Though the name on the street signs no longer have the same name, it’s the same old route that brought country kids to the Almeda school.
A road that once passed on school now passes at least eight and a huge stadium complex. And the crazy thing… on a route that runs from Harris thru a corner of Fort Bend and spends most of it’s time moving thru Brazoria Counties, mostly on the west side of Hwy 288. Moving from Houston to Pearland and finally thru Iowa Colony, all but one of the schools are in Alvin ISD. And there are schools in all three counties and all three towns.
Just an observation… oh, and what was once a drive thru rice fields and open pastures is now almost all subdivisions. Luckily for me, most folks still would rather drive the freeway, so my route is still mostly unencumbered by traffic.
My coffee’s been gone for awhile, and the muggy start has gotten muggier. Y’all stay safe, stay healthy, and Pray for our Nation it’s getting downright Orwellian out here.
