on the joys of fresh asphalt

paving the way to fun

Asphalt is unpleasant.

Ask anyone who has ever flown down the hill on a skateboard and hit the smallest of rocks. For about a tenth of a second, everything is blissful. Arcing through the air is fun.

Impact isn’t really that bad either. Hitting the ground while moving quickly doesn’t really hurt until the next day. Both immediate and continued pain and scabby discomfort occur once the asphalt takes hold of your skin.

Asphalt is a mixture of sand, rocks and dirty petroleum products. It’s nasty stuff that has a low dollar cost but high environmental impact. Many of the places that I loved to play in as a child are now subdivisions, ruined by asphalt. Where there were once wonderful meandering mountain bike trails, there are now big box stores and yet more asphalt.

In my young adulthood, I used to rage at those who would pave the planet. Why are we smoothing out all of life’s bumps, I’d puzzle? The world of paving and road work was toxic and needed to be stopped as far as I was concerned.

T…