Monday, December 15, 2008

The Day I Almost Died

When it snows in D.C. it inevitably brings what we fondly call the "snowpocalypse." Schools close at even the threat of an inch. The government delays opening its offices. The mayor gets up and makes a speech about how DDOT is "ready" to salt the roads against the impending doom. Residents rush the grocery stores and buy bread and milk (I am not kidding about any of this).

When snowpocalypse finally arrives, DDOT takes a few hours to get its rear in gear, the roads are eventually salted and no one that I know of has actually died from lack of bread and milk.

Here in the great Northwest things are pretty similar ... except for one thing: no one ever gets around to fixing the roads. And so by the time delayed everything finally opens guess what? The roads are still covered with ice.

And thus the Day I Almost Died ... no, not from sliding about on the ice. This near death experience was brought by sitting in traffic for no less than 30 minutes and traveling no more than 100 feet.

I am going to detail this on a map for you because I feel it would be beneficial.

Yeah, see the little circle and red line? That was my progress over that time.

Finally I decided that things weren't moving ... yeah, I know, it took me a whole half hour to decide that?! Well, you know you think "If I turn around THEN it will start moving so I should just wait it out."

Obviously that was not going to happen. So I gave up. Harumph. (<---- similar to the noise I made when turning around, only more of them).

Now the real irony of all of this is that I was trying to go to the post office at Madigan to save myself time. I figured, hey, why bother with a post office normal people can go to when I can go to one and not stand in line at all?

I know, serves me right. After I turned around I made my way allllll the way around the highway, through the north part of post, across the highway, alllll the way back to the hospital for the post office. Why? Because I don't give up, dag blasted! That's why!

... Except when I realized that finding parking was going to be the typical guerrilla warfare, only this time, guerrilla warfare on ice (hey! it's like a fun show! except with car crashes!) I threw in the towel. And went to the grocery store ....

.... Where I spent an hour. And then a half hour at the drive through buying my husband lunch, which was cold when they gave it to me so you can imagine how it was when I finally got it to him.

And now I am home. Time for cookies, cookies, cleaning a free crib, putting away the groceries, making dinner, folding laundry, making cards for the cookie plates I'm making Wednesday (more about that insanity later) and other no doubt fun things. Not in that order.

1 comment:

  1. Haha! You crack me up! And I'm SOoooOoo glad I'm missing this weather! I'm sure there will be enough badness come Jan/Feb...so I'll just hold out till then ;-)

    ReplyDelete