The Ballestero Blog

The K-Rail Interview

The Ballestero Blog: Most Highway Dividers never give interviews, so I am especially honored to have the opportunity to chat with you for a few moments and ask some questions about your life and your work, if you don’t mind.

K-Rail: Thank you for taking the time to stop and talk. No I don’t mind you asking.

TTB: Is it OK if I call you K?

K: Sure.

TBB: Tell me about yourself before you became a K-Rail. I see that you have some photos with you. Please feel free to show them our readers.

K: Thank you, I would love to. I have been a Rail since Feb 26, 2008. They stamped it on me the day I got poured. I have a picture of that day right here.

Here I am when I was just an old hardened boulder hanging out with some friends. I’d sat in the same place for years. My life was going nowhere. I wasn’t good for much of anything either.

Then one day, this man came by and looked me over. I guess he saw some potential or something in me that no one else saw. He picked me up and took me to his place. I wound up being placed into a very powerful crusher. Then when he felt I was ready, he turned on the conveyor belt and I started on my new journey.

TBB: Oh my! What was that like?

K: I was like nothing I had ever imagined. The crusher ground me up into powder and small pieces.

TBB: So the first thing that happened to you, was a complete transformation? You also didn’t even look the same! I am looking at the pictures of you as a boulder and looking at you now. Wow!

K: That’s very true. But I realized that the plan was not to destroy me, but to give me a new life and a new purpose. I also became at one, in a spirit of unity, with the others that were made just like me. We are now forever bonded.

TBB: Then what happened?

K: They poured me into this great big vat that churned real slow. They added some water and put in another ingredient or two, besides. Then they poured me into a 10 foot mold. I didn’t even get to choose how I was to be formed or what I was to be. The one that found me, decided that for me.

Inside the mold they placed some steel cables that would be there to give me added strength. When they finished pouring me, I noticed the scales said that I now weighed 4,000 lbs.

They then let me sit and wait for a process that is called curing. I had to go through that awhile before they could actually use me and put me into service.

TBB: Are all Concrete Dividers put into service?

K: I think they are supposed to be, but I’ve heard about some that are just happy being stacked beside the road in a field and never used at all. I think they are more of an eyesore, than anything. I am so glad that I can be of service.

I had some friends who got poured the same day I did. They got painted a bright yellow. The rest of us thought maybe it would lead to them having pride or something. But then an old-timer said that they were painted that color because they would be working in a very dangerous area and their life’s work was to be a warning and a help to others.

This here, is a picture of my Mom. She was showing signs of old age by the time they took this photo, but she was faithful until the very end. She was always so dependable. I wish more moms were like her.

Here is one of my Dad. He received a very hard hit last month and it showed. Even though it actually finished him off, he never moved. He never stopped doing what he was put there to do. He had some steel in him too. I am very proud of my dad. He never complained nor cried about the hits he sometimes took. He was a man’s man.

Many of my friends have tire marks and bumper scrapes, but they are still standing. Some have been hit hard by cars and even by trucks. They have stood unchanging in rain, snow, heat and cold. That’s what our life is all about. Doing what we were put there to do. We were taught that this new life we now have, is not just about us… it’s about others. I am very happy to spend the rest of my life this way.

They expect me to be a guide unto others, and a protection for all. My job is to help travelers on their journey. So, no matter what happens around me or to me, I am placed here to be noticed. I am also here to be unmoved and unchanged.

TBB: I’ll look for you K, the next time I’m out your way. Thank you so much for what you do. We all thank you!

K: You’re sure welcome… I’m be here.