Today was my first day back at work after being off on a long holiday break.  It is always tough getting back into the swing of things after an extended period of time off.  Today was no different.  Getting into work today was complicated by two things, an almost forgotten doctor’s appointment and the second phase of the New I-64 construction project.  It was just a routine checkup, but the doctor had moved his office since the last time I had visited him.  So I had to figure out where he had moved.  It turns out he moved to Webster.  I was in and out in record time and thought that I might actually get to work on time after all.

I headed north on Elm to Brentwood and continued north on Brentwood.  Things were going fine until I came to the Manchester intersection.  There was a little traffic backup at the intersection and I had to wait through a traffic light cycle.  Sitting, waiting for the light, I noticed the signage that warned that this traffic light was photo enforced.  These systems are becoming more common around town.  There is another one near the Park, at Forsyth and Skinker, but usually being on a bike, I don’t really have to worry about it.  Basically, the way it works is that when the light turns red a strobe light flashes illuminating a picture of you and your license plate running a red light for the police.

The light turned green and the car in front of me went forward.  I automatically followed it and then it stopped, leaving me in the middle of the intersection.  It was only then that I noticed that the traffic backup south of the light continued as far as I could see north of it.  I waited and waited and waited some more.  I was really starting to get worried.  Eventually, the cars in front of me began to move and I got out of the intersection before the light turned red again.  Whew!!

Just after this light, just north of Manchester on Brentwood is a little pastry shop.  I think the store use to be a Dunkin Donut shop, now it is Kolache Factory.  I wanted a cup of coffee and since traffic still wasn’t moving, I decided to try it.  I ordered the coffee and then noticing the selection of Kolache on the shelves, I decided to try one.  The clerk said that they are of Czech origin and their secret is in the dough.  They look like a large dollar roll, about three inches in diameter.  They come with all sorts of fillings, like breakfast choices, Mexican and sweet, for example.  I ordered the egg and sausage Kolache.  It was good.  Coffee and Kolache were less then four bucks.  They have only about a half inch of breading that completely surrounds the filling.  How do they get that filling in there?  I’ll have to come back at sometime other then rush hour.  It took me another half hour to go another mile to reach the Interbelt.  After that the rest of the day was uneventful. 

Coming home tonight was fine, no traffic problems.  The radio traffic report mentioned this morning’s backup on Brentwood.  It said that MODOT had blamed the backup on a software error on people’s new Christmas GPS devices that erroneously said Hanley was closed at Manchester.  Yeah, right!