More fun than a barrel of monkeys
Today was fun. I say that loosely.
For those not living in Atlanta, today may have been the coldest and iciest day I've had since I've moved here. The high was somewhere around 25-26 degrees and it stayed in the teens for most of the day. The coldest I've ever experienced in a place where I lived was second year at Indiana where the high reached only 16 degrees.
But, that's Bloomington, Indiana. They know how to deal with snow and ice there. Atlanta, Georgia... not so much.
When I left my place to drive (so I thought) to the gym, I discovered that I was a prisoner to a 50 foot streak of black ice in my community's parking lot.... in front of my car. This became very real when I got into it and had the gas to the floor, my speedometer reading 45 mph, and the car not going anywhere. The skidding and spinning sound added to the effect. I was stuck. What was frustrating was that my freedom was 50 feet away in the form of dry pavement, but alas my car couldn't get there.
This would be okay, but I had a long-awaited orthopedic appointment with Dr. Wertheim this morning. So I called a cab company to get me driven out to St. Joseph's for the appointment... one hour later, the cab arrived and took me out there. Fortunately, I did get to my appointment and got the prognosis on my knee... surgery is coming soon but fortunately it is the kind that will have a quick recovery. I should find out specifics soon when the MRI is completed and I have the surgical appointment.
45 minutes after my appointment, I finally arrive home (due to a short supply of good cabs) and find that my car is still in it's icy purgatory, at which point I called into work and officially was working from home for the day... which was all good because most of the work day was conference calls with my colleagues in Seattle. It was a productive day.
The great news is that, for some reason the black ice receded to a place where I was able to get my car "out of jail" around 5 this evening and managed to, after a few rounds of spinning, drive out and into the dry pavement. There was great rejoicing (well, not really... but one neighbor came out to see the attempt).
The story does have a happy ending... my plans fell through tonight so I called a few friends to see what was going on and ended up going to Martini's and IMAX with a group of friends tonight and seeing the Wild Ocean video there. It was cool... especially seeing these birds dive-bombing the ocean in search of sardines.
Good times.
And yes... I did park my car far away from the "black ice zone" tonight when I got home :-)
For those not living in Atlanta, today may have been the coldest and iciest day I've had since I've moved here. The high was somewhere around 25-26 degrees and it stayed in the teens for most of the day. The coldest I've ever experienced in a place where I lived was second year at Indiana where the high reached only 16 degrees.
But, that's Bloomington, Indiana. They know how to deal with snow and ice there. Atlanta, Georgia... not so much.
When I left my place to drive (so I thought) to the gym, I discovered that I was a prisoner to a 50 foot streak of black ice in my community's parking lot.... in front of my car. This became very real when I got into it and had the gas to the floor, my speedometer reading 45 mph, and the car not going anywhere. The skidding and spinning sound added to the effect. I was stuck. What was frustrating was that my freedom was 50 feet away in the form of dry pavement, but alas my car couldn't get there.
This would be okay, but I had a long-awaited orthopedic appointment with Dr. Wertheim this morning. So I called a cab company to get me driven out to St. Joseph's for the appointment... one hour later, the cab arrived and took me out there. Fortunately, I did get to my appointment and got the prognosis on my knee... surgery is coming soon but fortunately it is the kind that will have a quick recovery. I should find out specifics soon when the MRI is completed and I have the surgical appointment.
45 minutes after my appointment, I finally arrive home (due to a short supply of good cabs) and find that my car is still in it's icy purgatory, at which point I called into work and officially was working from home for the day... which was all good because most of the work day was conference calls with my colleagues in Seattle. It was a productive day.
The great news is that, for some reason the black ice receded to a place where I was able to get my car "out of jail" around 5 this evening and managed to, after a few rounds of spinning, drive out and into the dry pavement. There was great rejoicing (well, not really... but one neighbor came out to see the attempt).
The story does have a happy ending... my plans fell through tonight so I called a few friends to see what was going on and ended up going to Martini's and IMAX with a group of friends tonight and seeing the Wild Ocean video there. It was cool... especially seeing these birds dive-bombing the ocean in search of sardines.
Good times.
And yes... I did park my car far away from the "black ice zone" tonight when I got home :-)
Comments