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Here’s how my post-pandemic life has been going as I enter the third week back from isolation.

We’ve been going to church in person, but we’re still wearing masks because we like to sing – and after seeing those demonstrations of how the droplets shoot out of your mouth when you sing, I felt called by God to wear my mask.

We went to a restaurant on Mercer Island on Saturday unmasked, but socially distant. Still feeling fine so far.

We had a grandparent outing at the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden in Shoreline, and I started out with the mask off, but after following the grandchild down the various paths strewn with fairy doors, and little fairy houses built with supplies from Gnome Depot, my face was getting cold and, since the mask was handy, I put it on for warmth. I am happy to report no one accused me of virtue-signaling.

And I like being back in the real studio.

The only thing bringing me down is the daily drive through the bizarre roadscape that greets everyone who drives into Seattle.

Gene Balk, the Seattle Times FYI Guy, from the city’s Find It, Fix it app, and found that the number one complaint was illegal dumping comprising the sheer amount of trash in neighborhoods; the other hot topic was graffiti.

People have had it with the roadside messiness. You can argue it’s just cosmetic, but when you have so many of us still recovering from two years of isolation – to have to drive through the opening scene of a dystopian movie every morning is depressing.

There needs to a fleet of paint-blaster trucks: tankers filled with paint, with an array of spray nozzles mounted on both sides. They would go on night patrol and obliterate everything under a coat of Seattle beige as the truck is moving. Or you could program the nozzles to paint a camouflage pattern.

The highway art has become so bizarre, you wonder what planet you’re on. It is just too much first thing in the morning.

And if the vandals return, you send those trucks back every night if necessary. I would also design the trucks so they can re-paint the lane markings at the same time.

I think every commuter is entitled to two things: to know what planet they’re on, and what lane they’re in. It is not too much to ask.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.