Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Not Looking Forward to Winter

So, Monday morning was an absolute traffic debacle. And no one saw it coming. This leaves me absolutely dreading the winter driving months.

I had to work on Monday morning, so I got up at my usual time of 7 and I leave the house at 8:45 to get to my 10 o'clock dep in plenty of time (I like to have plenty of time in the morning, plus feel guilty about sleeping much later than that during the week). I get up, look out the window, and say, "Oh crap." There was about an inch or two of snow on the ground. This did not bode well. Brian hears me (having for once gotten up and going before me, as he was getting ready to be a big bad hunter) and says, "Oh the roads are fine." The subdivision roads looked okay, so I was hoping he was right. I turn on the news and immediately am hit with the news that the road crews were NOT out with salt, because the snow fall was unexpected, so the roads were NOT fine, in fact, they were absolutely terrible. The Channel 4 traffic girl tells me to leave 2 to 3 times my normal travel time to make it to my destination. So, I eat breakfast as fast as I can, barely shower and leave at 8 am.

As I'm driving down Hacker Road, things seems fine, so, I again am hoping the weather people are totally overreacting. I get on the highway and within 2 miles am at a dead stop. Not because the roads are bad, mind you. The road conditions were FINE. I turned on my XM Detroit traffic and listen to the reports. Apparently, the problem was that the bridges, overpasses and highway ramps were totally frozen, causing all sorts of accidents and closures and back ups. So, I proceed to drive all the way to Southfield at an average speed of about 25 miles an hour. It totally sucked, but at least I didn't feel like my life was in danger. It was just sloooooow. I finally made it to my destination after an hour and 40 minutes. That is an hour longer than usual.

That nightmare has made me very fearful of this winter driving season, especially in light of the fact that the road crews are cutting way back this year on manpower and salt usage for budgetary reasons. It was all over the news tonight. So, this winter, I will be prepared to make my hour and 40 minute trek to Southfield on a regular basis. Thanks Old Man Winter.

1 comment:

April said...

Ugh, that's terrible! How could they NOT expect snow??? a.) It's November. b.) Our news people were predicting it for days beforehand. Perhaps your weather guys should watch our news shows? :)