Meltdown

Nico and I sure received a lot of calls on Sunday. No, we weren't on the bridge when it fell down like an ashen blanket. Yes, it does affect my already barely bareable commute. Fortunately, not the worst direction which is the morning commute into the City, but I drive (or did previously) over that stretch of melted highway nearly every day on my way home. The piece that is gone is the connector that goes from the bridge (once you land on the East Bay side) up to the 580 (which goes right past my house). Tonight, Zoe and I drove in to the Haight to meet Stacey's clan for dinner at Cha Cha Cha to celebrate Michael's birthday. (Happy studly 16, buddy!) On the way in, I shot the picture above. I know it's not great, but you can see the charred edge where the bulldozer is, then the empty place where the ramp used to be. On the way home, we took one of the detours that took us off the freeway at Grand, down onto the Oakland city streets. A couple of miles of two-lane city streets with a light at every other block and we wound our way onto the 580 again. At 9pm, it wasn't that bad, but at 6 pm? Ugh. That can't be good. Any way we go, we'll be adding 10-15 minutes. There's no way around it except to go around.
And no mom, the Governator only gave us free BART on Monday. But we also get free commuter time BART for the first 5 hottest days of the summer (every year).
You can learn more about the Maze Meltdown over there on the right at the "Link of the Week" link. I really do change it...
Check it out