Stripe-ing Day

How do you add "ing" to the verb "to stripe". Perhaps it is striping, but it is definitely not stripping.

One of my favorite days of year in Tahoe is the day the county repaints the stripes that divide the highway. Sierra roads take a beating during the winter and when the snow and ice has melted and the grit is swept away, we are left with blacktop accented occasionally by the ghosts of former stripes.

Not only do the new yellow stripes look wonderful, they also are useful at preventing collisions. For example, there is a left turn lane from the highway onto a street I travel to get home. I know where it is, even if the stripes are missing, but oncoming traffic does not and they think it is part of their lane. Eeeeeek! No more. My left hand turn lane is now restored in yellow splendor.

The truck that lays down the stripes is cute (sorry I have no picture). It resembles a flatbed truck with an Apollo lunar lander leg stuck on one side. The leg extends to the middle of the road and squirts out the paint. I have no idea how they keep things aligned or control what kind of line is being painted: single stripe, double stripe, hashed lined, etc. It just looks like a guy driving a truck.

In other news, Clare and I exchanged our snow tires today for the all weather versions. My usual tire place is the Reno Costco because they have historically charged $24. Today they wanted $58 and it would be a two hour wait. Excuse me, but isn't the point of Costco to pay less money. The freaking VW dealership doesn't even charge that much.

A few months ago I read a gushing article about a family run tire shop in Truckee called Stowe's. They have very cushy couches, HD TV showing CNN, free coffee, and got me out in under an hour. Thank you Costco for driving away my business.