Monday was a bad day for JT.
To begin with when he got up, it was 5 a.m. but really 6 a.m.… by 11 a.m. he was starving… and by the time Vanna turned her last letter on Wheel of Fortune he was ready to get ready for bed! The only good thing is that JT’s car clock became synchronized again. He has one of those old, paid for cars that has a disc driven computer system rather than Wi-Fi, so the daylight savings time adjusts automatically. For two weeks he drives around with the car clock out of sync with real time; so it’s great now when he looks at the clock and does not have to compute the time mentally.
Since he got up at the old time, he had to wait around an hour before he could go to town for coffee at the new time. After coffee he crossed the Church Street Bridge and went to the Times office. Traffic and time was about usual. However, at 10 a.m. when he headed back downtown, things sure had changed.
At 10 a.m. he headed down Mill Street for town. Traffic was backed up turning left off University onto Jefferson waiting to get across the Keyser Street Bridge. JT thought, man, things must really be booming in town today, but he was wrong. The highway department had closed the Church Street Bridge for inspection to see how much longer it will stand. He got to town all right but returning to the office, traffic had backed up on Jefferson to Amulet trying to get across the river. So, he jogged over to Second Street and by the time he had gotten to the American Cemetery… JT thought he was becoming one of the residents… the train gate closed and JT knew he was stuck for five minutes.
With the traffic stacking up all over because of the closed bridge, it took JT over 10 minutes to make a left turn off Second onto University. Cars were backed up at the next stoplight too. Anyway, to make a long story short, it took nearly 25 minutes to get to the office, a trip that usually takes less than five. True, the train caused the traffic to back up, but once it started flowing there was no where to go because the bridges were clogged up.
All this just makes JT realize how much Natchitoches needs another bridge across the river. Without one, the city will be strangling in its own traffic.
