Here in the Deep South we got two inches of snow on Tuesday afternoon. It caused a traffic nightmare so horrific that the Today show is still talking about it two days later.
There is lots of finger-pointing and blame going around, but if you ask me, I think a lot of people weren’t expecting it to be a big deal. Tuesday morning dawned bright, sunny and dry. Despite the ominous weather forecast, the weather forecasters said repeatedly that most of it would likely be south of the metro area. So like most others, I headed off to work hoping that I might get out a little early and might possibly get a snow day Wednesday.
Well it stayed sunny and dry all morning. Then about noon it started to snow. Then all hell broke loose. Everyone left at the same time. And in a very car-dependent city with an extremely poor transit infrastructure, it quickly decimated the entire city. The weather no doubt contributed to the problem, but Atlanta already has too many drivers for the amount of available pavement.
(Atlanta Drivers + Inclement Weather = Fail)
It took me three hours to get home. On a normal day, the trip takes about 45-60 minutes (in traffic). I was one of the lucky ones. My boss lives 10 minutes from the office. It took her five and a half hours. She was one of the lucky ones. I know people who took anywhere from 8-12 hours to get home. Some parents couldn’t even get to their children at school and the kids had to spend the night with their teachers.
I’ve never, ever seen anything like it. On one hand, I was so incredibly thankful that my family was home safe. On the other hand, I felt completely helpless as I saw Facebook posts from those who were stuck in traffic or anxiously waiting for loved ones to get home safely.
What a mess!
As a result of the snow, which turned into ice overnight, we had two days at home this week. Snow days have a very different tone when there is a toddler in the house! Mike and I have spent the time switching off between working and watching L.J., which as much packing thrown in as we could accomplish.
While it has been nice to have the extra family time, I think it’s safe to say that we are all looking forward to getting back into our regular routines tomorrow! We have some serious cabin fever and L.J. was quite bored by late this afternoon. I made him an awesome tunnel out of boxes, which kept him entertained for awhile. I won’t lie – Mommy had fun crawling around in it too :)
(Please excuse the runny nose. The arrival of a new tooth is always preceded by a nose that won’t. stop. dripping.)
L.J. watched the snow outside the window, but he didn’t go out to play in it. It was extremely cold and very icy, so we decided not to take any chances!
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