Pilot's Log

The crookedest street in the world is a one-way, block-long span of San Francisco's Lombard Street. It consists of eight hairpin turns down a very steep hill. The recommended top speed for a car is five miles per hour. So on the one hand, you've got to proceed with caution. On the other hand, the quaint, brick-paved road is lined with flower beds, and creeping along its wacky route is a whimsical amusement. I suspect you will soon encounter experiences that have metaphorical resemblances to Lombard Street, Sagittarius. In fact, I urge you to seek them out.

I think I've already done that this week, in a weird fashion.

FP

There was a police standoff in Shady Hills overday, and when I looked up the area it brought to mind the place as it was when I was a college student and a new car driver...

Back then, the north section was a four-mile straight, that didn't enjoy much in the way of police patrolling because it was very sparsely populated in comparison to Hudson or Land O' Lakes.  So it attracted a particularly rowdy form of commuter.  And I took it because it was much more direct than going west to US19 and taking it all the way through Port Richey, Elfers, and Palm Harbor to Clearwater.

But what made the Shady Hills Road interesting...

The straight ended very abruptly with little warning as a sharp, 90 degree LEFT corner.  And then a half-mile later, just after the exit to Crews Lake Park, an equally demanding 90 degree RIGHT corner introduced the driver to the fun part of the course--a winding path through an orange grove, ending with the Golf Course on the left side (allegedly owned by actor Larry Manetti of MAGNUM P.I. and BAA BAA BLACKSHEEP fame), the junkyard on the right side, and the intersection with State Highway 52--which at that time had no traffic light and so the possibility of a jam of backed-up traffic.

Speeders and the occasional overloaded pickups would wipe out at the left-hander.  Luckily, there was a larger-than-usual sand shoulder to settle down the errant vehicles.  But if you got stuck in there, you were going to be there a while.

It was Hades for a yahoo in a muscle car--but fabulous if you were sly and sneaky in something light and nimble--like a Toyota Tercel.  Some idiot would be on my back on the straight, and then couldn't keep up with me through the orange grove.  Sometimes it can be fun to make your daily drive a sport, and Shady Hills back then was good for that.

But it isn't like that now.  The addition of two public schools in the area means much lower speeds and more cops.  The advent of the Suncoast Trail toll highway in the area broke the old path, so now it's more of a slow esse in the transition because of the new overpass/underpass.  Most of the orange grove is still there, but it's being eaten away by the growth of the Quail Ridge subdivision, and will probably be gone in a generation or two.  Every so often I'll dream of it, or maybe a road like it.

FP

As said, I'm in the process of a switchover from one form of Internet connectivity to another, and that means a lot of bureaucratic finagling with our service provider...plus some financial outlays.

Got my first bill from the new service today.  Tomorrow I'll have to go to the office to link the accounts.  The amount of the bill is over $200 but that included hardware and installation and we're promised a $35/month rate.

Meanwhile, in the past weeks I've had to get tires on Moonshine fixed, a traffic citation paid, and several other unforseen expenses dealt with.  I'm not so much complaining about that, just frustrated that a time of year that I should be carefree about money and I just feel dread and worthlessness.

FP