Redoing "Roads" and "Parking Lots"

I realize the title has a couple things in quote marks but those actually work in the context.  It appears the city has decided to upgrade several parts of the road and the parking lot by the post office.   The only problem is that its all dirt!

Yes, you read that right.  Dirt!  There are no paved roads or parking lots in town.  Not even the airport is paved!  Yesterday, when I went over to the post office, the city had dumped a bunch of fine, silty dirt all over the post office parking lot and one of those huge front end loaders was being used to tramp down the dirt.  Today, when I wandered through, it was a mess.  Half of the parking lot was under slimy mud and water while the other dry half showed all the tire marks from the loader.  It was uneven and hard to walk across.  It was so much better before they started.

In addition, today, they were trying to smooth a new load of dirt over the road in front of the post office and the result was about the same.   Some of it resembled the mud in the picture to the left.

 Out here, fixing the road simply means bring in a bunch of dirt, attempt to pack it down, and hope it holds until the snow covers it.  Usually, they dump the dirt down at the beginning of summer but sometimes they do it in the fall.  Either way, the dirt starts eroding away until the road is again filled with cracks, holes, or open streams.  Its all a cycle that happens every year.

Personally, I don't usually mind it except on days when the roads are bone dry and the wind blows the fine silt across the place.  You usually end up with particles in your mouth, eyes, hair and it even slips up into any sleeve or shirt openings so you end up needing to take a shower when you get home.