Tag Archives: traffic

local news

A small pleasure, but still …

Having my wife home after a three-week hospital stint has taught me to appreciate the little things I often take for granted.

One of them is not having to run around in heavy traffic to and from our house in Princeton and the hospital in McKinney.

If you know a thing about traffic in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, you’ll understand that it can be frustrating (to say the very least), especially if you need to be somewhere quickly.

I did discover a couple of alternate routes between the house and the hospital. They are relatively traffic free, but I still needed to navigate my way through rural areas with which I was unfamiliar … until now!

That particular daily routine is a thing of the past. I am pleased to declare that I intend to stick around the house as much as I humanly can while tending to my bride’s needs.

The little things … there’s nothing like ’em.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Smooth drive into downtown Dallas

I made a trek Tuesday morning from my home in Collin County to downtown Dallas.

Along the way I was struck by a couple of thoughts.

One was that, “Dang, it’s nice to drive along the Central Expressway during morning rush hour and not have to slow down.” Previous trips along U.S. 75 from Princeton to the heart of Big D would last as long as 90 minutes; the trip includes plenty of serious slowdowns and occasional traffic stoppages. I made this particular trek in less than an hour.

OK, I get that it was just the second workday between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which means a lot of traffic was, shall we say, elsewhere. School is out. Kids are with Grandma and Grandpa, along with their parents.

The second thought was whether it is a precursor for what might lie ahead if businesses have to shut down — again! — in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We’re in the midst of another spike in infections from the Omicron variant. The first business shutdown in early 2021 was no picnic for businesses that had to close their doors and keep employees at home. It was a picnic, though, for those who had to travel through the Metroplex during that time.

Our highway network often is choked with traffic during rush hours — morning and evening. I relished the drive this week. I don’t expect to relish it very much in the future.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com