Insomnia stikes again. I have way too much on my mind. I have a tournament to compete in this Saturday in Jackson, MO. (Anyone interested in going should let me know). I'm moving this weekend plus all of my school work and miscellaneous stuff. The school work stuff would probably be too boring, and, while many of you would enjoy it, I'm not up for sharing the miscellaneous stuff right now. Before you click back, I do have a topic this time. I promise.
I saw something Sunday evening that would really concern me if I were a permanent resident of Carbondale (or if I lived on the other side of the tracks from where I do, for that matter).
I was coming back from a weekend at home in Tennessee when I was stopped by a train at the intersection of E. Grand and Highway 51 (it has a city street name that I can never remember).
This isn't unusual. I get stopped by trains all of the time, and the only overpass is outside of town. An underpass is currently being built in what is, in my opinion, the worst possible location. The point being that, for now, a train stops all in town traffic from crossing between the East and West half of Carbondale.
Anyone who reads Conf Story III (useful AND shameless plug/reference) will know that I provided a solution to this problem when designing the Hunter's Carbondale base. The Carbondale fire department is not so well prepared.
While waiting for 15 minutes with my truck in park I noticed that a fire truck w/ it's lights on was in my lane, facing me, on the other side of the tracks. When the train finally got by, the fire truck tunred on its sirens and wormed it's way through the crossing gates.
House trailers burn up completely in less than 15 minutes, and there are a lot of those in C'dale and the surrounding areas. Even if it wasn't a trailer, a lot of damage can occur in that amount of time. While the fire engine was sitting there I did notice several police cars go by on my side of the tracks en route to the emergency in question. However, I don't remember seeing a single fire engine pass. I know that there are other fire stations in town, but if they hadn't needed that truck, then I'm sure it wouldn't have been en route.
I'm not saying that C'dale isn't a safe place to live. I'm just saying that if I ever need help I hope there isn't a train passing through.
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