In the Fast Lane

Paula R. Stern
A Soldier's Mother
01 November '10
Posted before Shabbat

For the last few years, traffic going into Jerusalem has been congested. Some mornings are tolerable; others a nightmare of delays and slowly crawling cars approaching the checkpoint and either passing through to another slowly crawling line of cars or maybe, just maybe, actually moving a bit faster. The roads division decided to add a lane - perhaps spreading the cars over three lanes instead of two might help...which might work of there wasn't also a bottleneck on the other side of the checkpoint, but never mind.

It was a step in the right direction, so for the last few months, we have watched the road slowly be widened until this morning when the lane was free and clear of all obstacles and three lanes of traffic now crawled up. The third lane was quickly labeled for public transportation - which is defined as buses, cars carrying three or more passengers and cabs. Why cabs? No idea, but there you go.

This morning, Shmulik had to meet S. (his commanding officer) at the top of our road. As we were climbing slowly behind a bus, S. called and asked where Shmulik was. S. was worried about the traffic. He told Shmulik to meet him at the front of the city because he had to drop one of his daughters at her nursery school. If Shmulik got there in time, no problem. If not, Shmulik would have to catch a bus to the base. S. didn't want to get stuck.

(Read full story)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.