Today was going to be the day. It would be the first day that I would get to the office. I was overdue. Unlike some, I had showered every day and shaved three times this week. I had even put on pants once or twice. I was not unprepared, to construct an awkward phrase. We received the e-mail this morning stating that the office would open at 10:30. This was an e-mail steeped in legalese. Coming in was optional. If you did come in, you should pay attention to your footing and look for ice. Parts of the parking lot would be blocked off that were too full of ice.
I didn't care. I was ready to take on the elements. Well, I was until I saw the 11 alive twitter feed. All I saw were major road closings and accidents. The I-285 Buford connector I use every morning just had opened. There were plenty of entrance/exit ramps that were not open. My car is a 2008 Scion. It's not made for the elements. I passed on coming in. Out of our team of four, one person came in, and he owns a Jeep plus he used to live in Colorado where they get hundreds of inches of snow a year.
I would complete that thought by saying that they would laugh at the weather that practically shut Atlanta down for three days. That's until I decided to take an innocent trip to Publix. We were not out of food. We were curious more than anything else, and what better remedy to the weather than buying the components of a few crock pot meals? We passed on walking and I decided to drive. The driveway was fine due to my excellent shoveling work. The street directly in front of our house was starting to show pavement. Directly to the right and left it still was an ice rink.
That's what the roads were like. Either ice rink or wet pavement. I gained as much momentum as I could on the pavement parts and held my foot off the gas for the ice rink. We slid a bit a couple of times but all in all it wasn't so bad.
The parking lot at the Publix was another ice rink. Neither my wife nor I own proper winter footwear, so our running/workout shoes would have to do. We braved it.
I thought the grocery store would be one of two ways. Either it would be teeming with people dying to get out of their homes or it would be barren. I mean barren in terms of customers and food. It was neither. I have to say it was like a Publix normally is on a Thursday morning. Nothing was out of stock that we wanted and it was a fairly pleasant experience.
The drive home was a breeze except for the other drivers. We had a left to take, but the 4 Runner in front of us going right went all the way to the left lane and did not move even when the light turned green. We found a crevice and made it through. As we got to our home street, a car was stuck in the ice and a truck was to its right. We had to take the long way back. Again we experienced the combination of Ice Road Atlanta and the sunny patches that were almost free of moisture. We made it home and I decided that I made the right decision.
Most of the schools are out for the week, which means they get another week off a few days after the Christmas holiday. Yeah, the kids are going to be so prepared to come back. I do not envy my friends and family who are teachers.
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