A little positive discrimination

is a good thing when it is related to road safety. The snail like pace of the railway works meant that the crossing I use the most frequently was completely closed yesterday. I had to use another one to get to the Saturday knitting group. That was fine. They are not digging that up for another fortnight according the note in our letter box.
The vehicular traffic of course is all over the place. Some people have no understanding that they may need to slow down a little in changed traffic conditions. Take an extra minute to get somewhere?????? Impossible! Pedestrians have to be nimble footed as they are sharing parts of the road with the impatient lunatics in cars.
I spent a very satisfactory afternoon tidying up the library cupboard with Maureen. Maureen is tall enough to reach the top shelf with ease. This helps no end in my role as "shelf elf ". We had quite a few books checked out which was also satisfying. It suggests that the new books we have bought are the sort that people want to borrow.
I had to call in at the bookshop on the way home so I returned via a different route. It had reached a very busy time on the road and I was rather apprehensive - no, very apprehensive - about using the railway crossing I have so far managed to avoid using. The pedestrian maze which I normally use had been closed off completely. There were the inevitable boys (of all ages) leaning on the fence to watch the activity along the line. I avoided them and waited to see what the young men who are on "lollipop traffic control" were doing. They have to control the traffic coming off the main road, the traffic going on to the main road, the traffic coming from a parallel side street, the traffic crossing the line and let the huge vehicles working there move backwards and forwards. I had to get across these streams of traffic and turn right from the footpath. It is an awkwards manouvre at the best of times because of the slope and the need to avoid a traffic island.
As I was watching and wondering how best to manage all this and even considering back tracking a couple of kilometres to use the crossing I had used earlier the lollipops went up in the
"Stop" position in all directions. The lollipop man nearest me called out, "Your turn." I pedalled through feeling like royalty.