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How Hard is it to Fill in a Rut?
By JLP | November 7, 2007
This is just too good.
Today I was out running errands when I came to the intersection in front of my local post office. A little lady was turning left when she somehow hopped the curb. Unfortunately at that very spot there is a huge rut right next to the curb. Normally a car that hops the curb would be able to just come back down again. However, the rut caused the car’s axel to come to rest on the curb. She was stuck.
I drove by when suddenly I felt like I needed to turn around and go help her. This was a busy intersection and I thought the little lady would be scared to death. So, I stopped and went over to check out the situation. There was no way to help her without the assistance of a wrecker. I called 911 and they sent a police car, who then called a wrecker service. I left after the police woman arrived.
After leaving the lady, I went into the post office and asked to speak to the manager. He came out and I took him outside and showed him the situation. I asked him who would be in charge of filling in the rut and he told me he wasn’t sure and that he would have to call the postmaster in Houston to find out the protocol. LOL! It’s a freakin’ rut!!!!! What really irritated me was finding out that postal manager knew about the rut but didn’t do anything about it (listen to me sounding like a lawyer!). What exactly is his job?
After he assured me that he would do something about it, I left. Then I called the city streets and drainage department to find out if it was their problem. When I started to explain the situation, the lady stopped me mid-sentence and told me that their responsibility stops at the curb!
It’s frustrating that it is so difficult to get anything done. Instead of pointing the finger at different departments and government entities, why doesn’t someone just fill in the rut?
All this reminds me of a story that happened to me back during my grocery store days.
I was stocking shelves during a busy day. The meat manager was stocking lunch meats in the section right next to the dairy. A customer needed something out of the dairy so they asked the meat manager for help. Instead of putting the customer first and taking 30 seconds out of his time to just go get the product, the meat manager walked all the way back to backroom to get to the intercom to call for help. He called for help 3 times! Finally, on the third time I threw down my box, stormed back there to find the meat manager standing there. He saw me and told me that the customer needed some milk (I don’t remember exactly what it was).
I looked at him and said, “And you can’t F****n’ get it for him?”
His face turned beet red and he said, “You can’t talk to me like that!” I said, “I just did!”
I then explained to the meat manager that instead of making the customer wait, he could have taken 30 seconds of his time, walked into the cooler, grabbed the product and given it to the customer and THEN called for someone to stock the shelves. In other words, he could have used a little common sense.
Some of you reading this might think that I was a little hard on the meat manager. Let me just say that he had a track record of being an ass. This was just the straw that broke JLP’s back!
Now back to the rut. I have to drive by this rut everyday so we’ll see how long it takes to get it filled in. Anybody want to make a wager?
Topics: Miscellaneous | 15 Comments »
November 7th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I say it won’t get fixed at all until they have some major refinishing job. First, the procedure for the government to do anything usually involves a mountain of paperwork and scheduling and passing the buck. Second, its probably not ‘procedure’ to fix one rut.
Reminds me of this story of a tunnel in some city. It was starting to leak, so the govt started procedures to get it repaired. They had to go through all these lengthy steps, get bids for the job, set up a committee to decide who would get the job, set up a committee to oversee the committee…well, just a real sea of red tape. By the time they had it all figured out, the tunnel had already collapsed.
November 7th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
My dad has a saying that I love using “No one said there’d be thinking involved!”
November 7th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Why don’t you just buy a few bags of dirt from Lowe’s and fill it in yourself?
November 7th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
You said “why doesn’t someone just fill in the rut?”
Good question, why don’t you?
November 7th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
As much as I agree that the rut needs to be filled in, it is simply very low on the city’s and the postal manager’s priority list. No one is going to make extra work for themselves for something that rarely affects anyone. In addition, administration won’t pay for it unless it is shown to be a hazard and something that needs to be fixed – one incident is not enough.
This is somewhat different from a manger getting milk; that situation is easily remedied while filling in a rut requires construction workers, blocking off the small area, backing up traffic, paying for the materials, etc. However, good managers should be able to take care of things themselves when their employees are busy and/or the issue is handled quickly.
Government administration has a history of doing things slowly; the many levels of bureaucracy cause things to move slow as molasses.
Bags of dirt won’t help when the street sweeping comes by, and dirt will get all over the road. Putting a cover over it won’t help either; if any car goes over it the cover is misplaced and when it rains, it will get messy.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree that problems like this need to be fixed, but realistically, it won’t get fixed unless the whole road is repaved. And really, who wants to pay for it?
November 7th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Esmo,
I think you misunderstand. The rut is on the grass-side of the curb, not in the street itself.
FMF and Bobby,
I actually thought about it. However, it’s a big rut. It would probably take at least 15 – 20 bags of dirt to fill it. Besides, isn’t that what we pay taxes for?
November 7th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
As a dear departed city councilman used to say about that particular post office, “Brand new post office, Same old lines”……..
November 7th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Let us know when the rut is fixed….
I say 4-6 months!
November 7th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
Bobby, JLP already went way above and beyond what 99.9% of the population would have done. Are you really going to chastise him for not doing more? It wouldn’t surprise me if you were the type that leaves their shopping cart in the middle of the parking lot, and when someone complains, you simply say, “why don’t you take it in yourself?”.
I get sick and tired of constantly hearing people complain about how President Bush, Christians, Capitalists, or really anybody who wants to make something of themselves in life, is going to be the downfall of this country. If anything is going to be the downfall of this country, it’s going to be the result of selfish, lazy, self-entitled attitudes.
November 7th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Adam,
I don’t think Bobby meant anything by his comment. I think his point was that I was complaining about something that I probably could fix myself.
November 7th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
the city streets thing is more of a matter of money than responsibility. If its not your department, are you going to spend money on supplies, labor, take the time to get the permit to close that portion of the street for the repair? probably not.
besides…its only a problem if people hoop the curb..which they shouldn’t.
the meat manager on the other hand probably could have been better. However, in many cases, they are discouraged from helping customer in other sections. I know the sales people in an electronics store I work for are. Not only do manager hassle them for working in areas “out side their expertise (basically out side the arbitrary expertise they claim to have…and usually don’t) but the other sales people rip them new ones when its a younger staff member moving into their “territory” Although i think this is more because of comission…can’t imagine its the same in a grocery store.
November 7th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Write a letter to the mayor / city manager or give them a call or email…
How long will it take?
Here’s an example of how crazy things are – Locally, there is a sign beside a major intersection. It says, “Cution – Bump”. Why? Because, there is a bump in the road that could easily be fixed – but instead of fixing it, they’ve put up a sign – and the sign has been there for more than a decade!!!
Note – To all of you who want the government to sponsor your health care – be careful for what you wish!!! You, my friend, are the bump…
NCN
November 8th, 2007 at 3:28 am
If it was Houston, they would’ve probably covered it with a huge metal plate, put some cones around it, and called it fixed!
November 8th, 2007 at 8:54 am
In Massachusetts, they’d call in five guys. Three to supervise, one to drive the truck, and one to fill the hole. Then they’d have two city cops at each end of the construction zone to supervise traffic. Yay for bureaucracies!
November 12th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
[...] Oops. I forgot to give everyone an update on the rut saga that happened last week. Last Friday afternoon my father-in-law sent me this email from his Blackberry: Your rut has been filled in………and has tire tracks thru it. [...]