Engineering – Into the West

KC Area ‘Beltway’ Enters 3rd Decade or “A Tale of Two States”

“Kansas followed the Texas plan, buying a wide enough swath of land for the high-speed interstate artery plus room for parallel service roads,” says Kerr. “Missouri just bought enough land for the interstate route and diamond intersections, and didn’t connect those diamonds from point to point.”

http://kcur.org/post/after-30-years-i-435-more-success-story-kansas-missouri#stream/0

I drive I-435 on the Kansas side nearly everyday. And I remember before it was completed and you couldn’t drive completely around the 81-mile circuit. I’m thankful my home state took the long view instead of being shortsighted for future generations.

WorldCon Withdrawals

Despite what my husband thinks, I have not over-dosed on science fiction since last Wednesday when the 74th World Science Fiction Convention (commonly referred to as WorldCon) arrived for the second time in Kansas City, Missouri. MidAmeriCon II ended yesterday and of course the highlight of those five days was the Hugo Awards Ceremony held Saturday evening.

In fact, I sincerely hoped when I woke up this morning it wouldn’t be to the harsh reality of a Monday morning workday. Ah, but life is cruel and the alternate dimension I’d enjoyed for five days evaporated into the dreary doldrums of gainful employment. Well, not completely dreary. Perhaps dreaded would be more like it, since I knew I’d be walking into some ‘hot potatoes’ once I strapped myself to my desk.