Camera 70 sits at postmile 42.394, south of Hidden Valley, and its the only lit stretch on that whole run of the 15, I checked 68, I checked 71 through 74 same night same minute, all of them dark corridor, sodium poles standing there doing nothing or not standing there at all, and then 70 has this floodlight coming down out of nowhere that isnt on any pole I can find in the frame, no housing, no arm, just light, hitting one lane. not the road. the lane. the one closest to the shoulder, which is the one a car pulls into if its going to stop, if its going to idle a minute, if somebody needs to get out and check a wheel or a phone or whatever the reason is that a car sits still at eight forty four at night on a freeway with nothing around it for six miles either way. thats not lighting a road. thats lighting a spot.

I called the district about this one same as I called about 305, same guy probably, he didnt say the light wasnt district property, he said he'd have to check, which every single person Ive ever asked anything says right before they stop returning calls, thats four for four now, four calls four checks zero callbacks, I keep the log, the log is a separate page and its still up if anyone wants the dates lined up next to each other. My aunt used to say check and see meant no without the guts to say it. she said that about a lot of things, mostly about my uncle, not really about cameras, but it fit here too and I dont know why that keeps happening, why the old sentences keep finding new places to be true. anyway.

One car came through while I had the frame open, taillights only, already past the light by the time it registered, and I dont know if it stopped first or just looked like it slowed because thats what that light does to anything that passes under it, makes a stop out of a normal speed, and Im not saying the car stopped. Im saying if it did, thered be no way to tell from outside the frame, and if it didnt, the light still caught it exactly the same, six miles of nothing and one lit lane and something always eventually drives through it. the truck pages are still up if the crew that doesnt fix my pole is the same crew that rigged that light, I havent lined the dates up on that one yet either.