Have you ever noticed that some people wake up on the wrong side of the bed some days while others appear to live their lives on the wrong side of the bed?

The latter group seems to always see the worst in any given situation.

A good example was the negative reaction to some recent street paving in Ironton.

"Why couldn't they have planned it better so it wouldn't interfere with the Memorial Day Parade?"

"I can't believe they tore up all of the streets first and then started paving. Why didn't the just do a little bit at a time?"

Lots of folks planted the "blame" on Mayor John Elam. While we've certainly not always seen eye-to-eye with the mayor on issues in the past, the criticism over the paving is ridiculous.

First, paving the streets - even small sections of the city streets - is a very good thing and long overdue.

Second, while perhaps the timing could have been coordinated to avoid the Memorial Day Parade, the patches of torn up paving did no harm. The parade got off without a hitch.

Besides, since paving is impossible - or at least not cost effective - during the winter months, the paving season, as it were, is relatively short in the spring, summer and fall months. With the short window of opportunity, scheduling paving can be difficult. Most people just dig in and get it done as quickly as possible.

Lastly, the critics seem to ignore the logic of construction efficiency. While tearing up and repaving the project one block at a time might seem to make good sense to the layman, it doesn't add up.

Consider this: If you're the construction company and you've already moved on site the equipment - which may be leased to you by the day - necessary to grind down the pavement, it behooves you to use that equipment to do all of the work you can all at once.

In the same line of thinking, a paving company will likely give you a better deal on asphalt if you buy 25 truckloads at once instead of one truckload a day for 25 days.

The bottom line is that if Ironton - and other parts of the county - want to see progress, we'll have to be a little more flexible and understanding when that progress becomes slightly inconvenient for us.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too. Or in this case, you can't have a newly paved road and never have any slight delays or inconveniences, too.