L’Shanah Tovah – Happy New Year – 5774

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, starts tomorrow night. Thus, it’s time for my annual New Years message for my family, my real-life, Blog, LiveJournal, Google+, and Facebook friends (including all the new ones I have made this year), and all other readers of my journal:

L’Shana Tovah. Happy New Year 5774. May you be written and enscribed for a very happy, sweet, and healthy new year.

For those curious about Jewish customs at this time: There are a number of things you will see. The first is an abundance of sweet foods. Apples dipped in honey. Round challahs. Honey cakes. The sweet foods remind us of the sweet year to come. As for the round challah. Some say they it represents a crown that reflects our coronating God as the King of the world. Others suggest that the circular shape points to the cyclical nature of the year. The Hebrew word for year is “shana,” which comes from the Hebrew word “repeat.” Perhaps the circle illustrates how the years just go round and round. But Rosh Hashana challahs are not really circles; they are spirals… The word “shana” has a double meaning as well. In addition to “repeat,” it also means “change”. As the year goes go round and round, repeating the same seasons and holidays as the year before, we are presented with a choice: Do we want this shana (year) to be a repetition, or do we want to make a change (shinui)? Hopefully, each year we make choices for change that are positive, and each year we will climb higher and higher, creating a spiritual spiral. The shape of the Rosh Hashana challah reminds us that this is the time of year to make those decisions. This is the time to engage in the creative spiritual process that lifts us out of the repetitive cycle, and directs our energies toward a higher end.
[Thanks to Aish Ha'Torah for these insights]

There are also apologies, for during the ten days starting this evening, Jews examine their lives and see how they can do better. On Yom Kippur (starting the evening of September 13^th), Jews apologize to G-d for their misdeeds during the past year. However, for an action against another person, one must apologize to that person.

So, in that spirit:

If I have offended any of you, in any way, shape, manner, or form, real or imagined, then I apologize and beg forgiveness. If I have done anything to hurt, demean, or otherwise injure you, I apologize and beg forgiveness. If I have done or said over the past year that has upset, or otherwise bothered you, I sincerely apologize, and will do my best to ensure it won’t happen again.

If you have done something in the above categories, don’t worry. I know it wasn’t intentional, and I would accept any apology you would make.

May all my blog readers and all my friends have a very happy, healthy, and meaningful new year. May you find in this year what you need to find in life.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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California Highway Headlines: 8/16/2013 – 9/2/2013

Last time, I mentioned the dog days of summer, and promptly got in trouble for it. Not again. Here are the headlines for the end of August:

• Fallen Caltrans worker may get honor. A stretch of State Route 94 in San Diego County may be named in honor of Stephen Palmer, Sr., a Caltrans worker killed in May 2011 while on the job.
• Highway 29 alternative in south county could be ready by 2017. Motorists could have a south county alternative to clogged Highway 29 by 2017, local officials said this week. Both Napa County and the city of American Canyon are cooperating to complete extensions of Devlin Road. It would parallel Highway 29 from Soscol Ferry Road at the Butler Bridge to Green Island Road, more than three miles to the south.
• Bay Bridge: Two-week traffic switch clock starts countdown. The buzz and hum of activity in the Bay Bridge construction zone is reaching new levels as the bridge team and the contractors start the two-week countdown clock to opening. Painters are touching up the rails and tower. Crews are installing irrigation and topsoil for landscaping near the Toll Plaza. Electricians are wrapping up the final lighting details. Equipment trucks rumble back and forth. Nothing short of a “blizzard can stop the Labor Day weekend switch-over now,” Bay Bridge spokesman Andrew Gordon joked Tuesday following an update on what to expect during the five-day closure. The entire bridge — western and eastern spans — is scheduled to close at 8 p.m. Aug. 28, and reopen to traffic at 5 a.m. Sept. 3.
• Caltrans plans project to ease Capital City Freeway bottleneck in east Sacramento. One of the Sacramento region’s vintage traffic bottlenecks – the eastbound snarl on the Capital City Freeway – may be in line for a partial pressure release. But the trade-off will be extra traffic on some central city streets.
• Could A 405 Expressway Tunnel Dramatically Improve Traffic? Imagine you’re traveling on the 405. It’s backed up. A bad accident ahead. Next exit ahead… the 405 tunnel. That’s right. A tunnel that would take you along an expressway under the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass or, a park and ride where you can pick up a subway. This may be LA’s westside future.
• Caltrans may face fines for Willits project. Caltrans may face fines or even be forced to stop work on a controversial project that is out of compliance with environmental regulations. Caltrans is building a $300 million freeway bypass around Willits in Mendocino County. The freeway goes right through a sensitive wetlands area, so Caltrans is required to do $50 million in environmental improvements to compensate. However, the US Army Corps of Engineers says Caltrans failed to get a qualified contractor and meet required deadlines for the environmental work. The Corps calls the violations “very serious.”
• Willits finally getting freeway bypass but isn’t sure it still wants it. The project was proudly unveiled in this Mendocino County lumber town in the mid-1950s, when the car was king and the future looked bright. Instead of channeling Highway 101 traffic right down Main Street, a four-lane bypass dubbed the Willits Freeway would route vacationing motorists and commercial trucks around the community’s periphery.
• Bridge Troll’s fate hangs in limbo. After years of roller-coaster costs, curses and delays, one key question about the new, $6.4 billion Bay Bridge eastern span remains: What happens to the Bridge Troll?
• Never Built: Los Angeles- Causeway. Gayle Anderson was live in Los Angeles to see the exhibit Never Built: Los Angeles at the Architecture and Design (A+D) Museum of Los Angeles. Never Built: Los Angeles explores what Los Angeles would have looked like through a number of never built architectural projects.
• Greenbrae interchange group reaches consensus on Hwy. 101 improvements. During its final meeting, the group of elected officials tasked with identifying alternatives to a $143 million plan to reconstruct the Larkspur-Corte Madera stretch of Highway 101 reached consensus on a handful of improvements now slated for consideration by the Transportation Authority of Marin.
• Old Bay Bridge east span to be dismantled from top. Even before the last cars pass over the 76-year-old eastern Bay Bridge span, demolition crews have been busily prepping for its removal. “They’ve been surveying … and doing a lot of paperwork and environmental compliance,” says Andrew Gordon, spokesman for the bridge project. Environmental restrictions bar dynamiting the old span, so it will have to be dismantled piece by piece – west to east and from the top to the bottom – to avoid a collapse.
• Where goest thou, Bay Bridge Troll? While Caltrans spokesmen are busy talking about the new span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge that will open Sept. 3, a small group of inquiring minds want to know what will become of the Bay Bridge Troll once the old bridge is dismantled? Here’s an update on the troll. Even more updates: There’s a new troll.
• Caltrans never approved design of Bay Bridge S-curve. Caltrans managers never approved the perilous design of the Bay Bridge’s S-curve – now being demolished to make way for the new eastern span – and authorized the use of portable concrete rails despite the risk of vehicles hurtling over the side, according to documents from a wrongful death suit the state agency recently settled for $700,000.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Updates to California Highways: June / July / August 2013

Labor day weekend. Always a good time for a project such as updating the highway pages. As I write this, the Bay Bridge is getting ready to reopen, so let’s get to the updates. As always, you can keep up to date with me by following my blog at California Highways (just follow the “Roadgeeking” category). There you will find bi-monthly collections of articles related to California Highways, as well as other items of interest. There is also a California Highways Facebook group, where you can post updates.

Updates were made to the following highways, based on my reading of the papers (which are posted to the roadgeeking category at the “Observations Along The Road” and to the California Highways Facebook group) as well as any backed up email changes. I also reviewed the the AAroads forum; I’ve given up on misc.transport.road. This resulted in changes on the following routes, with credit as indicated [my research^(*), contributions of information or leads (via direct mail) from Michael Ballard⁽¹⁾, Rebecca Kellawan⁽²⁾, Clark Peters⁽³⁾, R.S.⁽⁴⁾, Jim White⁽⁵⁾]: Route 1^(*), I-5^(*), Route 11⁽¹⁾, Route I-80^(*), Route 91^(*), US 101^(*), Route 126^(*), Route 138 (High Desert Corridor)^(*), Route I-580^(*), I-710^(*), I-880^(*), Lassen CR A1⁽⁴⁾ .

Reviewed the August 1934 issue of “California Highways and Public Works“. This is the issue where there announced the signing of state routes. Made sure the information on the site corresponded to that issue. This was an extensive effort, updating many many routes. The most interesting find? Route 180, which seems to have included (to be) signed segments in 1934 that were not defined until 1959, and even odder, was planned to be extended across the Sierra mountains to end in Independence (again, that extension was not part of the legislatively defined state highway system).

Reviewed the Pending Legislation page. The new California Legislature site is very nice, but it occasionally switches to another bill when moving tabs. As usually, I recommend to every Californian that they visit the legislative website regularly and see what their legis-critters are doing. Noted the passage of the following bills:

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This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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