First Posted: 11 December 1995
Hope ta bloody hell we get the contract. Oh, aye, the money'd be good. But that's only part o' it. Highway 101 needs a serious overhaul. The province has to re-fit it. The Sunshine (and let's just be putting Sunshine in quotes for the moment, shall we, Johnie me boy) Coast is gettin' a fair bit of traffic these days. Cor...i spend what time i can away from this sprawl meself. Guess other folks aren't any different there. Still...the ferry prices are sure jackin' it up. Ah well... But if the road doesn't get overhauled some bloody RV's going to be dropping inta the drink when a bank gives way. And i've got a bloody good idea which banks they're going to be.
Taking my eyes away from the map of the west coast pinned to my wall i search around for my coffee mug, a giant ceramic affair with the company's logo on it. Actually, i've got several of them. I always seem to be leaving them someplace or other and walking off to someplace else in the building. By having multiple mugs i always seem to have a coffee near at hand, although it does usually tend to be cold. Not that i haven't drunk enough cold coffee out in the field...There's been times i'd have gleefully throttled someone for a cold coffee. Ah...there we go. Sitting on the floor next to my chair. Wonder how it got down there? Actually, Tracey tends to wonder about these things more than i, as she's the one who often goes around collecting my mugs after me....even though it's not in her job description.
Turning back to my computer i call up Linda's most recent environmental draft for the project's application as i take a big slug of coffee. Uhrm...cold.
The computer's HD whirs for a couple seconds and then coughs Linda's work up on the monitor for me. Good work, that. Once again i'm glad i hired her. Hell, the whole team's top o' the line. Young, smart, dedicated...hungry. No; not hungry. More like...driven. I don't know fer sure where they got it. Whether it was there to th' same degree before i met them, or whether 'tis me that's rubbin' off on the lot o' them. Nae, they had to 'ave 'ad it or i'd never a hired 'em in the first place. The lot of them see what's been happenin' to the planet. Goin' ta hell in a handbag, ya might say. An' sitting on yer arse hopin' some other bloody git's gonna fix it ain't the way to go. If ye want somethin' done right ya better bloody well do it yerself... (Ah, the words of a true engineer. Reminds me of a joke about the aristocrat, the baker, and the engineer who are about to be guillotined in the French Revolution (nasty piece of work, that).)
Like Highway 101. It needs the upgrade. Badly. But it needs, i hate to use the phrase, an "eco-friendly" approach to the re-fit. Proper drainage culverts to prevent erosion. Filtration points to catch oil laden run-off from the roadway before dumpin' the crap down into the ocean. Bridge points fer the animals to cross the highway safely. Hell, the so-called toad tunnels would be a big improvement over the current situation! And we might as well be using an environmental roadway to push the message on the public. Environmental information at the rest stops. Target the kids, that's the way to go. If you can catch the young...hell...if you can catch the young you only have to wait twenty or thirty years before they can do anything about it.
Wonder if there's th' time to wait? Well, John, you'll never know lest ye start it now, neh?
I tunelessly murmur a few bars of a Tom Waits song. 'And the Earth died screaming, while i lay dreaming. And the Earth died screaming...' Yeah, well...
Gods...i'm exhausted.
Well, back to it, boy-o. You know all the rest o' them are out in the main office workin' just as hard as you. Right. Now, let's see if Linda's got some better figures on ungulate deaths on Highway 101... Don't expect the drones in government to get all bent over some dead deer, but they may take notice at the capital loss due to insurance claims and loss of wildlife for which huntin' licenses could be sold. Or am i just gettin' cynical in me old age?