Second day at home
I am on my second snow (Ice) day and loving it. Actually, I'm getting a little stir crazy. Tomorrow is looking ify too.
It's really strange to be in a place where snow and ice means the world comes to an end. There are a total of five snow plows for King county (All of Seattle and the East Side = 2 million people). That means we sit and wait until it melts.
My drive home from work on Monday night was one of the scariest of my life. Nora and I left daycare to stop off at Trader Joe's for her favorite breakfast cereal. On our way out of the parking lot, I couldn't decide which way to turn...neither was moving. To go the first mile of our commute it took one hour.
To get over to Woodinville from Kirkland, there is a pretty steep hill. I didn't even think about what was going on as I looked at the 36 on my dashboard thermometer. The beautiful snow that was coming down was starting to melt. All of a sudden, the thermometer dropped to 28 degrees. The road immediately turned to a block of ice and people started going into the ditch left and right. I made it to the top of the hill just in time for the freeze. Unfortunately, I needed to get down the other side.
Everyone else that was on the top of the hill was just as scared as I was. I guess in Washington, that means just sit in your car, or actually get out and walk home. Cars were abandoned all over the place. Seriously, I had to have seen at least 50 people walk by my car in the forty-five minutes it took me to get really upset. After sitting in the line of scared drivers and listening to Nora scream that she was hungry and she had peed her pants, I was pissed. These are some of the stupidest drivers I've ever seen here! What did they think was going to happen? A snow plow sure wasn't going to show up! I turned around in the middle of the road and decided to try to find a way to cut through the neighborhoods to get closer to home.
Before heading down the road, I got out of the car, got some cereal and raisins for Nora, changed her pants, and had her sit on a random coat that was floating around inside the car. She was not a happy camper. We were on hour two of our journey.
As I was turning right into the neighborhood, a man in a small truck stopped me and asked if I knew how to cut around the traffic through the neighborhood. I said I didn't, but I'd follow him if he thought he had some idea. I knew it wasn't going to be easy because there were some massive hills back in the neighborhood, but I knew I wasn't going to sit in the car with Nora for the whole night. I only had a quarter of a tank left and there were no diapers in the car.
We wound through the neighborhood and I finally fell so far behind the guy that I was on my own. I took one final turn before I stopped and started to cry. Nora kept asking, "Mommy, are you ok?" from the back seat. When I looked up, there was a man walking down the road, probably from his abandoned car on the side of the road. I rolled down the window and told him where I lived. Did he have any idea how I could get close to Avondale and 165th? "Honey, you are looking right at Avondale Rd.!"
Nora and I walked in the house 2 hours and 45 minutes after we left the grocery store. Not the best Monday night of my life. Thankfully, Tuesday and Wednesday at home have made up for it! Sound like we'll at least be late for school tomorrow, if not off completely.
It's really strange to be in a place where snow and ice means the world comes to an end. There are a total of five snow plows for King county (All of Seattle and the East Side = 2 million people). That means we sit and wait until it melts.
My drive home from work on Monday night was one of the scariest of my life. Nora and I left daycare to stop off at Trader Joe's for her favorite breakfast cereal. On our way out of the parking lot, I couldn't decide which way to turn...neither was moving. To go the first mile of our commute it took one hour.
To get over to Woodinville from Kirkland, there is a pretty steep hill. I didn't even think about what was going on as I looked at the 36 on my dashboard thermometer. The beautiful snow that was coming down was starting to melt. All of a sudden, the thermometer dropped to 28 degrees. The road immediately turned to a block of ice and people started going into the ditch left and right. I made it to the top of the hill just in time for the freeze. Unfortunately, I needed to get down the other side.
Everyone else that was on the top of the hill was just as scared as I was. I guess in Washington, that means just sit in your car, or actually get out and walk home. Cars were abandoned all over the place. Seriously, I had to have seen at least 50 people walk by my car in the forty-five minutes it took me to get really upset. After sitting in the line of scared drivers and listening to Nora scream that she was hungry and she had peed her pants, I was pissed. These are some of the stupidest drivers I've ever seen here! What did they think was going to happen? A snow plow sure wasn't going to show up! I turned around in the middle of the road and decided to try to find a way to cut through the neighborhoods to get closer to home.
Before heading down the road, I got out of the car, got some cereal and raisins for Nora, changed her pants, and had her sit on a random coat that was floating around inside the car. She was not a happy camper. We were on hour two of our journey.
As I was turning right into the neighborhood, a man in a small truck stopped me and asked if I knew how to cut around the traffic through the neighborhood. I said I didn't, but I'd follow him if he thought he had some idea. I knew it wasn't going to be easy because there were some massive hills back in the neighborhood, but I knew I wasn't going to sit in the car with Nora for the whole night. I only had a quarter of a tank left and there were no diapers in the car.
We wound through the neighborhood and I finally fell so far behind the guy that I was on my own. I took one final turn before I stopped and started to cry. Nora kept asking, "Mommy, are you ok?" from the back seat. When I looked up, there was a man walking down the road, probably from his abandoned car on the side of the road. I rolled down the window and told him where I lived. Did he have any idea how I could get close to Avondale and 165th? "Honey, you are looking right at Avondale Rd.!"
Nora and I walked in the house 2 hours and 45 minutes after we left the grocery store. Not the best Monday night of my life. Thankfully, Tuesday and Wednesday at home have made up for it! Sound like we'll at least be late for school tomorrow, if not off completely.
posted by April at 2:54 PM
4 Comments:
Oh that must have been terrible. Thank goodness for your Iowa driving experience! Some of the worst winter drivers I have EVER experieneced was in Colorado, of all places. If they don't have chains on their tires, they're worthless.
Remember yesterday's comment about 65 degrees? Well, today it's 25 degrees and there is freezing rain right now. Fabulous!!! That's Iowa for ya!
I am so sorry you had to participate in our Winter Wonderland nightmare. When I first moved here in 1994, I saw chains on cars with two inches of snow. I thought how pathetic and would just laugh! Now I understand why.
That is too bad! I can understand your tears. I'm glad you are both safe and didn't have to walk!
Good to hear you made it home safely. Slow and steady wins the race...
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