Huge Sinkhole on I-70

Check it out - this thing had traffic snarled up all day yesterday. The following is from the local newspaper.


That sinking feeling
Sinkhole makes mess of I-70
Crews start to fill in a sinkhole Thursday that opened in the westbound lanes of I-70. Traffic on the interstate was getting past in the emergency lane, resulting in lengthy traffic delays.




A 14- by 20-foot sinkhole on I-70 West that snarled traffic throughout the day Thursday has been filled with concrete.

About 4 p.m. Thursday, the State Highway Administration reported that the concrete in the 25-foot-deep hole would take about 12 hours to set. SHA officials planned to lay asphalt over the concrete and expected to have the interstate open by today’s morning rush hour.

The problems began about 7 a.m. when SHA workers closed one lane to make minor repairs on a bump near the South Street exit, said spokesman Dave Buck. While putting grout down on the surface, the section collapsed.

No one was injured and Buck said he was grateful workers closed the road before the collapse.

Thursday evening, drivers were getting by on the left shoulder. SHA set up message boards at both the 59-mile marker and the 62-mile marker advising of the problem and traffic delays.

It is not unusual for sinkholes to pop up after a heavy rainstorm, which the area received last weekend, Buck said.

The area around South Street is prone to sinkholes. In January 2005, a sinkhole about 25 feet by 17 feet and 13 feet in depth opened up behind the guardrail on I-70 near the South Street exit.

In September 2004, six sinkholes opened up near the LaFarge Quarry and beside Monocacy Boulevard near Bailes Lane.

It was a close one ...

Wow - last night Jenny told me that she almost hit a deer while driving home from work. It happened by the Army base near our house. We constantly see lots of deer inside the fence of the base but they never seem to be outside the fence. Apparently though, last night, as she was going past the base, there was a police officer outside the fence try to scatter a group of deer that were hanging out near the side of the road. I guess in doing this one of them decided to cross the road rather than run away from the road. When the deer darted out in front of Jenny, she was able to stop but a car coming in the opposite direction wasn't so lucky. The deer took off after being hit so .... she's not to sure what happened to him or her and Jenny said the car sustained considerable damage but the occupants were OK .. thank goodness. In a way I'm glad that Jenny experienced this without any bad results. There are tons of deer near our house as well and there is one particular spot coming into our community at the bottom of a hill where they like to cross. Hopefully this will slow her down a little when coming into the development. I love the fact that two of my children are able to drive but I constantly worry when I know they are out and about. So many things can happen in the blink of an eye.

Worked on this blog all day long!

Oh my goodness - what have I gotten myself into. I've just spent the greater portion of the day picking out a new layout for my blog. (don't tell my boss and Mary if you're reading this, pretend you didn't). I picked one out earlier in the day that was a real pretty beach landscape but once I put it into my blog it was very difficult to read the writing. I think I've finally found one that I like. Let me know what you think. There are soooooooo... many to pick from and I have such a terrible time making these kinds of decisions.

My First Blog Attempt

My niece, Sandy (http://www.swimming-scrapping-sandy.blogspot.com/) has sparked my interest in creating a blog. I was struggling to come up with an interesting blog name and then it hit me ... my husband (the cook in the family) always said that for a meal to be appetizing you have to add seasoning. I decided that would be an appropriate word to use in the title of my blog as well. It's all the different seasonings or personalities, that make a family flavorful and sometimes pretty wild and crazy.

I'm hoping I will continue to post. When my first daughter was born in 1989 I started a journal on my 1st computer, an Apple IIc. Does that date me or what? Now, before I could even bat an eye, she's almost 19 and in her 1st year in college, I have two other children, a junior in high school, and a 7th grader and I think that I only continued that journal for about a month if even that. I see a lot of younger moms, or moms with small children posting about how time flies, and wow how true that is. I swear my kids were infants, toddlers and preschoolers just last week. So keep your fingers crossed, because oh how I wish I had kept up that journal back in 1989. What a wonderful thing it would have been for the kids to be able to read as they grew. I still have the computer. If I can remember how to work it I'll see if I can find that old journal and maybe transfer those entries here.