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Construction In My City Has A Different Timeline

They say there are two seasons in Canada – winter and construction.

construction in my city has a different timeline

Summer is usually when all the road construction and repairs get done. But we have become lulled into living with lane restrictions and detours, some that last our entire spring and summer.

Here in my city, they are taking the construction season to a new level. 

Road construction now goes deep into the fall and, I dare say, into winter.

Coming back from our cottage in late August this year, we were welcomed home with work being done on an intersection close to our place. This intersection is so close that I use it every day. Actually I would have to go out of my way not to use it.

I thought the construction would help the flow of traffic and make things easier to get out of our subdivision, especially during peek hours. 

I did wonder why they were starting it at the end of the summer though. School was fast approaching and the traffic that the nearby high school generates makes it tough to get out of our community. It was obvious they would finish the construction after school started, which made me wonder why they couldn’t have scheduled it to start earlier in the summer when the intersection is not as busy.

Well, here we are rolling into December and they are still pouring cement and paving the road. And it looks like it will not help one bit with traffic flow … but hey, it will give bikers a nice lane to ride on. 

Maybe the city is sending a message right before the snow flies: Ride your bike; don’t take your car. 

I’m pretty sure that as the roads pile up with the white stuff that there will be fewer bikers … but at least they’ll have a beautiful lane. It may even get plowed. 

Why not? So much time and money has been spent on it, why not keep the lane open for the crazies who want to freeze riding to school or work. 

This intersection is taking so long to create and is such a pain, that I have a new Christmas wish. But it’s not a great wish, because it would mean I wouldn’t receive it until Christmas morning. And you know those construction workers will not be tying a bow around the stop lights for me on Christmas Day.

My worst fear is that this will go on into the new year. If it does, I will have to make a New Year’s resolution to find another way out of my subdivision.

Already I’ve had to find a few alternate routes that take me on a meandering drive through other communities. I am seeing a new side of the city.

I remember as a kid the agonizing wait for Christmas to come. Seeing the presents pile up around the tree got me hoping. Wondering what was in them created uncontainable excitement. 

I never thought I would experience those same feelings over the construction of an upgraded intersection.

Here’s the thing: It’s natural for us to have a timeline for things we want to obtain in our lives. Sometimes we have some control over them. But there are times when we want God to bring about something in our lives. It’s those things we must be patient for. God’s timeline is not ours.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What are you in a rush to see completed or come about in your life? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Visually This Shouldn’t Have Happened

The other day I saw something that shouldn’t have been happening.

It could happen, but often it’s an optical illusion … like when you put a fork in a glass of water and it looks like it is bending. 

Years ago I went on a bike hike with a buddy. We were going camping, and our road trip was to take us about five hours, which we stretched into about eight.

Along the way we had some long, uphill climbs to make, but one part of the road looked straight and flat.  

As we started on this long, straight stretch of road, I noticed it was getting easier to pedal. I started to move up the gears and with each gear it got easier to pedal. 

It was a straight road and I was in shock at how we were clipping along. I stopped pedalling because it was a waste of time; we were flying but the road looked flat. 

Obviously, it was an optical illusion … something like the Magnetic Hill and the Reversing Falls in New Brunswick.

I had been to both those places when I was about 7 years old. Both of them are nothing more than optical illusions. They look like something is defying gravity, but in reality it’s not. 

What I experienced the other day was not an optical illusion. 

My wife, Lily, and I were driving through Toronto on the 401. It was late in the afternoon on a Sunday, with many people on the road returning from their cottages at the end of the weekend.

Lil was looking at a driving app that gives you tips on the best route to take.  

And though we were going straight through Toronto, the app said that we should get into the collector lanes at a particular point because they were moving slightly faster.

We were not going too fast in the express lanes so we moved over and noticed that we were actually moving a little faster. 

But that was very short lived. Shortly after we got into the collectors, we were reduced from four lanes down to three because of construction. 

This was followed by another lane reduction a few kilometres later. At this point you could tell we were moving slower than the express lanes that had no reductions.

I was starting to question the app for getting us into the mess we were in, because you know that every time there is a lane reduction, the cars in that lane have to merge into your lane.  

And then after a few more kilometres we got another lane reduction. If you’re counting, we went from four lanes of traffic down to one lane.

And of course, we slowed down during the reduction. 

But then the most amazing thing happened. With high cement barriers on both sides of our lane, we started to pick up speed. We started going faster and faster, and when I looked over to the express lanes, the traffic in all four of those lanes was going slower. 

We were whipping past them at a fast clip. It was no optical illusion. 

With how slow the trip had been up to that point, it was almost a miracle. 

Here’s the thing: Your life can look like it’s going well. From your vantage point and everyone else’s, your life is moving along nicely. But it’s your inner spiritual life that is the unseen determining force of your future. Don’t get lulled by what is visual. Pay attention and get your spiritual life right with God. Your physical life will not defy your spiritual life. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What part of your life looks better on the outside than it is on the inside? Leave your comments below.

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Frustrated On The Road Again

Traveling the other day, I found myself a little frustrated. The conditions were good; the sun was shining, and the road was dry.

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The traffic, though heavy, was moving at a good pace.

I had some music on and really, what more could you ask for? … Not much, except I would have liked the guy in front of me to get out of the way!

I found him a little annoying. Well, to be honest, a little more than annoying.

For one thing, he didn’t drive at a steady pace. He would keep up with the traffic ahead of him for a few minutes, but then slow down by almost 10 km/hr. I found I was on the gas, off the gas the whole trip.

I would have passed him but it was only a two lane highway and there was steady traffic coming the other way.

I figured he wasn’t much of a skater – he had to have weak ankles not to be able to keep his foot on the gas at an even pressure for very long.

I found myself analyzing what he was probably like. I came up with his personality traits and the kinds of things he was thinking about.

If I had have had a police sketcher in the seat next to me I think I probably would have been able to come up with a fairly good picture of what he looked like.

My picture might not have looked anything like the guy in real life, but it was dark out and so we will never know for sure.

Let’s just say my description fit him to a T.

The other thing that bugged me about his driving was he used his brakes all the time. We were driving on a highway; there were no lights, just straight road!

There was no need to touch the brakes, but it was like he needed to hit them frequently just to make sure the pedal was still there or that someone hadn’t tampered with his brake line.

Like in most things, momentum is key. I’ve learned in mountain biking to try to use your brakes as little as possible, because any forward momentum you’ve built up will be lost as soon as you put on the brakes. Coasting is a better way to control your speed than stepping on and off the brakes.

However, on a bike when you loose momentum, you have to expend a lot of energy pedalling to get it back. In a car you just have to put your foot back on the gas pedal … unless you have weak ankles and can only sustain the pressure on the gas for a short amount of time, like the guy who was driving in front of me.

In the end we parted ways. He turned off the road, and someone else had to drive behind him and get all frustrated.

As for me, I’ll forget about him, but there’s plenty others out there who will take his place in front of me.

Here’s the thing: Life can frustrate you at times. You may even be a little frustrated with God, feeling like He is not clearing the way for you. Patience is required, and maybe that’s what you need God’s help for more than anything else.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What has you frustrated lately? What will you do about it? Leave your comments below.

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Like Lemmings Jumping Off a Cliff

We haven’t received all that much snow this winter, but whenever I have had to travel, the snow has come in piles!  Out of the last five trips I’ve made to either Toronto or Ottawa, I’ve traveled through a snow storm each time at least one way.

I know it’s Canada and winter, and snow is one of our best GNP’s (Gross National Product) but still, every time I travel?  Come on!  You can pretty well track our snow fall by my travel plans this year.  They’re lucky down in Florida that I don’t have a trip planned to the sunshine state.

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An hour before returning from my latest trip, the snow started falling.  It seemed pretty light so I wasn’t worried.  But when I finished my meeting and went out to my car, all the cars looked the same.  They were all white with about three inches of snow on them.

I picked my car out of the line up, opened the door and reached for the snow brush.  It was one of those snow days that when you finished brushing the snow off your car, the part you first brushed off needed another brushing.  You could just keep going around your car brushing off the snow.

Once I got going, I realized the roads were going to be slippery – and you know what that means:  Everyone who can’t drive is out on the roads trying to audition for that TV show, “Canada’s Worst Driver”!  I saw a few that I think would be good candidates.

The highway was packed, visibility was poor and then we got diverted off the highway.  I found out later there was a 60 – 80 car pile-up we had to detour around.  It was during that detour that I realized how conditioned we are to just follow.

It was one lane, stop and go, bumper to bumper.  Everyone just started following the car ahead.  We traveled for an hour like this.  Then I noticed a sign indicating a turn back to the main highway.

When I got to the corner, the cars ahead of me didn’t make the turn.  They kept on the single lane road like lemmings, just following the car ahead, without thinking about where they were going.

I looked in my rearview mirror as I drove the route back to the highway.  No one followed me.  I was the only one who made the turn; everyone just kept going straight.  When I got to the highway, there were no other cars on it.  I had three lanes to myself for about twenty minutes.

It was like the other cars were looking for some official to direct them back to the major route.  I kind of chuckled to myself as I sped down the highway, thinking that there were people still traveling bumper to bumper when they could be back on the highway traveling 80 -100 kph faster.  I made it home much sooner than I’d originally thought.

Here’s the thing: It can seem like the right thing to follow what everyone else is doing.  We blend in and it’s comfortable.  But often following the majority keeps us from the better plan God has for us.  We need to keep checking the signs God gives us in His Word to get back on His path and not stay stuck on a detour.

That’s life!

Paul

Question: What do you do to keep from following everyone else?  Leave your comment below.

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Get Out of My Way!

I’ve been known to get a little frustrated in traffic. City traffic infuriates me, but highway traffic, it infuriates AND bewilders me. I don’t understand how you can be driving at, let’s just say a little over the speed limit, on a 4 – 6 lane highway and have traffic come to a complete stop.

I understand a lane closure or an accident would cause it, but when there is nothing to block the lanes from moving freely, how can I go from traveling at 120 km/hr down to 0, and then have to putt along between 0 and 40 for what seems like forever?  There are no traffic lights on the highway, people! (If someone can explain the science of this, I’d appreciate it).

Recently, I was traveling through Toronto up to Sauble Beach.  I planned to stop at the Apple Store at Yorkdale Mall right beside the highway … but I left a little late.  I knew I would have to make good time on the road to get there before the store closed.  When I started, traffic was moving well.

By the time I was half way there, I was optimistic that I would make it to Yorkdale in time.  The traffic had been light and, let’s just say, I was making pretty good time.  Then my world caved in.  Being late Sunday afternoon, people were returning from their cottages and every route was funneling a ton of cars onto my highway.  Sure enough, seconds after passing a major on ramp, I saw brake lights and my car literally came to a stop.

I drive a standard so the constant speed up and slow down is rather annoying, especially if you have to do it for a good 40 minutes.  I kept looking at the clock and my hope of making the Apple Store was fading.  But just when I had almost written off the possibility of getting there on time, the traffic picked up.  Why?!  I have no idea, but I was ecstatic and it bugged me all at the same time (you see, I really need that explanation).

I drove as fast as I legally could – well, maybe a little faster – and kept looking between the road signs and the clock to judge my timing.  I knew it was going to be close.  But there was another hitch:  the off ramp from the highway to Yorkdale was closed.  I would have to exit off another street and negotiate my way back to the mall.  I looked again at the clock . . . I only had 10 minutes.

It was then that I had to give up and realize I couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t get off at another exit, make my way along the streets, park the car and get inside the mall to the Apple store in just 10 minutes.  I kept driving.  I looked at Yorkdale from the highway as I passed by.  I was so close, if it wasn’t for that blasted traffic.

Here’s the thing:  When life throws us a roadblock, we look to blame someone and often times we look to God.  Why did God do this to me?  Blaming doesn’t help; it makes us even more angry, and it doesn’t move us to a solution.  What we should do is pour out our sorrow to God, let Him know how we feel, and seek His help.  Ask Him for strength to go through the roadblock, and/or a solution to get past it.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question: Who do you blame most when you hit a roadblock in life?