Noisy, Dirty Days on the Horizon

Although there have been lots of nighttime bugs,  loose dogs, noisy animals and assuming neighbors to deal with periodically since I moved to this agricultural environ last August, one of the strengths of this neighborhood is that we live on a dead-end street with very little traffic. Kids can play or ride bicycles outside without parents or grandparents worrying too much about high speed traffic,  and adults can stand out in the middle of the street chatting as they take in  the late afternoon breeze or cool night air.

That's all about to change. For years there have been rumors that the government plans to widen the road and connect it with another road, thus making it the preferred bypass route for reckless trucks and other high speed traffic wanting to avoid town.

For years the neighbors have discounted those rumors. But in the last few weeks  they started hearing them again. And then this past week there was a public announcement that any junk left standing on the opposite side of the street would be confiscated (there are no residences on the other side of the street, but LOTS of stuff placed on public land which people have claimed as their own).

Well, today people have been moving stuff, and I expect that as early as tomorrow the construction crews may be moving in. It will be noisy, and very very dusty for months to come. And even after all the construction is finished, those nighttime neighborly chats at 9, 10 or 11 pm will probably never be quite the same.