A combination of highly unfavourable freeze/thaw conditions and less focus on roadway maintenance has resulted in the worst springtime driving conditions in Canada’s capital city in recent memory (i.e. 35 plus years).
It should be noted that this has not only been impacting vehicles with four, or more, tires. For those of us who like to bicycle, moped, or in some cases even just walk, the circumstances range from unpleasant to daunting in too many places.
The variety of cuts and holes in paved areas has become so voluminous that a category of names is being established for them. Here are ‘popular’ ones in our region:
- Aqua crater, a hole with depth up to 10 cm which frequently fills with water and so can provide a hidden dip in proceeding
- Old rail, as in an imbedded metal sensor showing through crumbling surfaces at intersections
- Road tube remnant, namely indentation formed by tube counter smashed from volume impacts
- Cut groove web, as in where pavement at vehicle intersection stops is worn down
- Reptile cut, with a spine look, which incorporates a hodgepodge of revealed sensors or tubes
- Cave in, where a soft surface hides vulnerable, undercut asphalt
- Line of insanity, which is displayed as several metres or more of continuous breakage
- Danger dodge, which means little reaction time to unexpected locations encountered with little warning
- Gauntlet, as in having to navigate through a range of cracks both to the left and to the right
- Trap, as in little reaction time to craters where there is only low to zero margin of error in avoiding
- Manhole, occurring around manholes, as cracks around them starting to create a widening circle of crumble
- Depression, as with reaching an appreciable, unavoidable drop
- Patch-on-patch, as evidenced frequently subsequent to road maintenance patching efforts which become a quilt of unevenness
- Rivulet crack, as a long, thin stream acting as discomforting accompaniment
- Bumping up, referring to fill-ins which rise above the roadway, creating turbulence felt physically
It may be that one has to crack a few eggs to make an omelette, but pavement cracks are harder to swallow.
the watch of time 
Morals 2.0
While preparing for a new Toastmasters speech assignment about telling a story with a valuable lesson, or moral, I listed a number of candidates among currently well-known axioms. I’ve finally narrowed this down to one around which to build my own fable.
However, when one considers the way many clichés are constructed, they leave room for alteration, or new perspectives considering our increasingly diversified society.
To wit…
A fabulous ‘no prize’ can be had for guessing which cliché I chose.
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