Big Yella Cavalry

A glimpse of the Normal on such a Weird Day!

It snowed pretty darn good on Friday night.  The picture attached to this post is from this late snowfall, in fact.  It threw a lot of us for a loop.  Everything is already so weird that having a 4-6 inch snowfall on April 17th was just one twist too odd for many of us, myself included. 

Usually when it Snows Like That, I can count on seeing trucks from the Big Yella Cavalry (PennDOT) barreling down the two roads that make up the intersection in front of my house.  They're a comforting sight and sound.  I love seeing the amber flash of their lights as they clean the roads.  I spend a lot of time here at my house alone, and seeing the PennDOT trucks has always made me feel connected. 

Friday night, though, I wasn't sure what to expect.  It snowed pretty heavy.  It was the wet, slippery kind of snow.  Like everything else, PennDOT has cut the size of its Big Yella Cavalry down to Lockdown Levels.

But while I was out with my dog, in the snowbound hush, I could hear a low rumble coming from down the road.  I thought, "could it be?!"  And I stuck around outside, camera-ready, just in case.  It sounded like it was slow going for a bit, ad then there it was.  A Big Yella Truck, plow installed, amber lights flashing. 

It gave me a Bit of a Moment, Friends.  I shed some tears, and I'm not quite sure even now what flavor those tears were.  Maybe wistful.  Relieved. 

I was definitely glad to catch a glimpse of something so commonplace and ordinary on an absurdly strange day, in these ridiculously odd times.  That PennDOT truck really felt like this spectacular gem.  A celebrity passing through the neighborhood. 

I'll tell you what.  Even in Normal Before, I was a big fan of PennDOT and the Big Yella Cavalry.  But once we get into New Normal if we ever do, and I have places to be on time to, I will never again gnash my teeth at having to wait for a road crew fixin' the roads.  I will never take the sight of a full crew and their yellow trucks for granted again!

If you know a PennDOT employee, tell 'em thank you.  I'll tell 'em, too.   Thank you, PennDOT!