Red Light Emotions

So Matney has its very own Matney Mall, a community center, a fire department, and even a new mayor elected every couple of weeks, according to the sign.  But who would've ever thought we'd have a stoplight district too?  Not just any stoplight district, but a full fledged obstacle course set up on a cliff and lined with cement barriers. 

How I've managed to make it up and down daily with my driving skills (or the lack thereof) without crashing, I'll never know.  One thing is for sure, though.  No matter what, you will have to wait.  This thought occurred to me today.  I now know what inspired Dr. Seuss to write this part of his book.  He was, no doubt, stuck in the stoplight district of Matney dangling between earth and sky...

"You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting."

It's the waiting part that complicates matters.  I'm not sure what part of, "Red means stop, green means go, and yellow means lickety split," that people can't seem to understand.  Why does the old lady in her Subaru argue with me that her light was green when we meet in the middle of "the district" when I know for a fact that my light was green?  Why does the guy on his moped think that red only applies to licensed drivers and cause me to nearly miss my green light before daylight because I have to wait on him? 

And what about the "foreigners" passing through our district?  Everybody can pick out a tourist in a crowd.  Foreigners are those that don't know that it's okay to weave in and out of construction workers and equipment as you pass through.  Instead, they stop.  They are the ones that pull right up to the red light and take up both lanes so you can't pass until they back up and let you through. They're the ones that crawl because their GPS has most likely given up hope.  After all, no satellite could ever truly capture what we drive through.

So after saying all this, may I say that I am truly blessed to live in Matney, once you get there of course:)

Here's a picture that I took at the house today.