You can't get there from here, or Minneapolis cleans up

Three miles of Interstate 94 are closed in downtown Minneapolis for the weekend. This stretch connects I-35W, where the bridge collapsed, with County Highway 280, which is now one of the official detours. The highway gnomes are widening it (i.e., eliminating the breakdown and bus lanes) so that it can handle all the extra traffic caused by the need to manoeuver around the missing 35-W bridge.

It is amazing how fast highway construction crews can move when they really have to. Even though it's been raining all day, they are at work. Last night, we were in one of the last cars onto I-94 before it closed until Monday at 5 AM. The westbound side, already closed, was ablaze with huge floodlights and busy with activity as workers knocked down fences, uprooted metal barriers, and painted new lines.

In normal circumstances, this project would take a whole summer. But because there is no alternative, and traffic has been a total mess for three weeks, it will be done by Monday. Makes one think, yes?

When children return

Joe College Grad and girlfriend moved to Minneapolis. It was a saga getting them out of NYC--Joe College drove to New York, helped them pack, and drove them back to the Little Apple. They are looking for jobs and an apartment while they live upstairs with Joe High School, who had been looking forward to spreading out into the empty rooms and having the bathroom all to himself. My deadline for them is September 1, and it is fast approaching, with little movement on either the job or the apartment front.

They seem depressed, adrift, and without a well-thought-out plan. The skills required to get through the University of Chicago or teach first grade in the Bronx do not seem to translate to the real world. Joe's girl has never been outside New York. So this move represents many challenges for her. Let's hope the whole enterprise works.