E Is for Error, Correction Pending: #atozchallenge

Posted on by M.K. Waller in Uncategorized

 

I am happy to report a pleasing development:

The ramp from TX SH 130 to TX SH 71 at Austin has a sign reading “Merge Right,” when it should say, “Merge Left.” After the second time we passed it, David emailed the government agency in charge of highway signs and told them about the error (which could have caused a problem). The third time we traversed the ramp, the wrong sign was still there.

Today he received an email from the agency that said, “You are correct in your assessment, that sign will be removed and replaced with a merge left sign.”

(Well, d’oh. Of course he was correct. He reads words of one syllable and knows his left from his right. So do I.)

We’re both gratified that performance of his civic duty will improve traffic flow and, better yet, will stop irritating the Davises every time we use the ramp. I’m considering emailing the authority to tell them their email contains a comma splice (a variety of the irritating run-on sentence) but am afraid that if I do, they will retaliate by not replacing the sign. I’m also afraid they’ll email me to point out an error in my email to them. I occasionally make one.

I couldn’t find an image of a sign exactly like the one that will replace the sign on the ramp–or of the current sign either–so I cropped the one below from some clip art. The words are correct, and that’s what counts.

After posting this for the benefit of my friends on Facebook, I realized that in the A to Z Blogging Challenge, today is E, and I could post this story about an error. I did not include the name of the government agency, of course. See “retaliation” paragraph, above.

TX SH 71, PD
Map of TX SH 130 by Fredddie under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikipedia

 

 

4 thoughts on “E Is for Error, Correction Pending: #atozchallenge”

    1. You’re welcome. I’m thinking now of tackling the sign at the San Marcos River bridge at Fentress: Gaudalupe County. It’s been there for years. At first I was irritated, but in its own way, it’s amusing. And I think the only other person who’s noticed it is my high school English teacher, who lives in Fentress. But since my husband has found the email address of the signage people, I guess I should make an effort.

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    1. That’s what we’re wondering. We don’t take that route often, but we’ll keep an eye on things. Our version of governmental oversight, I guess. Thanks for commenting.

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