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Writer's pictureMichael Jacoby

The Sbuirrels #15: "Roadwork" Talkback


The cover for the 15th issue of "The Sbuirrels." Based on the cover for issue #12, "The Wound," this is an alteration of that cover using a GIMP plug-in, making the image appear out of colored die with black numbers.

Yup, it's yet another GIMP alteration of "The Wound," this time with colored digital die with black dots. The next issue's going to be similar, but don't worry. It'll be the last such issue!


The title for this issue, "Roadwork," came to me during and after an eventful Friday—May 31, 2024. The day before, during work hours, some city workers came in front of my work building and started working on the road without warning. After the building manager talked to them, they warned her that getting into the parking lot across the building wouldn't be very easy tomorrow.


On Friday morning, I headed out to work, as usual. In my neighborhood, our gas and power company were digging up the roads to install new gas lines, closing a street for most of the day while they did their work. That day, they were going to start work on my street, and I left before anything got started.


Normally, I would take the Ben Franklin Bridge to get to work and home, but recently I started to take the Betsy Ross Bridge also. I only started taking I-95 South to work frequently a few days prior to this writing, and would normally take the Richmond Street South ramp, then turn left onto Lewis Street. I similarly only started going straight down Richmond Street to get to work a few weeks or so before this writing.


While on the Betsy Ross Bridge on Friday May 31, I noticed some black clouds nearby, and as I turned onto the Richmond Street exit, I discovered the source: there was a major fire at one of the buildings at the corner of Lewis Street, causing both the remainder of Richmond St. and the entrance to Lewis St. to be blocked by firefighters, causing massive traffic pileups. Some cars (myself included) decided to go the other way on Richmond St. by attempting to take the NJ left turn exit and maneuvering back into the other lane, a rather difficult task.


After slowly going through the opposite lane of Richmond, also very congested, I managed to find a more bare spot by turning a left on Aramingo Avenue, then onto Adams Avenue, and then onto I-95, which was a little more congested, then on my way to work.


Or so I had hoped.


My work building is located on a one-way street in Philadelphia. When I got to the entrance of the block on the street, it was entirely blocked off due to road construction. I had noticed that at the end of the block, cars were pulling into the street and into the parking lot across from my building. I figured I could go in through that way to get to work. So, I turned around a few blocks and managed to get near to my block's entrance, except for this time, a large semi-truck was trying to make a turn, but couldn't easily do so due to the limited space for it.


Traffic quickly piled up behind me again and I got stuck. After a little bit, I noticed on my right that there was a small parking lot in-between two buildings that led to an exit on the one-way Orkney Street. I managed to turn into the lot and onto said street, and by that time, I was extremely frustrated by my obstructed morning commute that I decided to work from home that day. Because of the gas line construction going on at my street, I had to park my car at a corner somewhat distant from my house.

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