This is the hashtag from twitter. It is a good approximation of how I felt after spending 4.5 hours on the road in gridlock and not being able to pick my kids up from daycare on time. Other names like snowmageddon or snowpocalypse have been used.
Sunday night, Wayne and I debated approaches to our Monday commute. We have one decent snow car between us. There were consistent predictions of subfreezing weather, but not whether there was snow in Seattle. On Monday, at the site of snow, we all piled in the car and headed out. The kids got dropped off without breakfasts. Usually, there is breakfast available at their childcare. Both places were in a bit of disarray from the snow.
This was a view from a walk at lunch. Only 20 min in the air was cold.
The day unfolded and didn’t seem too dramatic. Yes, there was snow. I started getting phone calls from Wayne about when he should leave. I was seeing patients. A colleague from New Jersey was nonplused by the whole affair. I had a degree of anxiety about getting home, but didn’t predict what would happen.
Wayne left work about 3:30pm. Southbound I-5 was a mess. Getting up the hill was impossible. Wayne had to go further south via Swift Ave to get up the hill. He got me after I finished with patients. We crawled slowly off the hill and headed to 4th. 4th connected us to north downtown and was flat. 4th was a parking lot. 99 and 1-5 both were closed due to collisions, so downtown got locked up. The hills were icey so we didn’t venture off 4th. We went 2 blocks in an hour. We watched 15 cycles of one light. I watched the clock tick and quickly realized we would not make it to the kids. We’ve never not been able to pick the kids up on time.
So I started calling. I had a couple of leads. Most of the people I know have multiple kids of their own. After 15 calls, I had a plan. One person picked up Sara and another picked up Laura. It was complicated. Calls dropped. I wasn’t able to reach people I expected to be able to reach. Wayne’s phone didn’t get charged and I was trying to conserve battery.
The girls both got picked up. I was impressed that we were the only parents not able to make it pick up a child from childcare. That surprised me given the massiveness of the gridlock. Next I became worried about my bladder. No convenient bathrooms. One man got killed in Tacoma while getting out of his car on 1-5.
The girls didn’t seem to miss us. They enjoyed their playdate, Sara at EJ’s and Laura at J&Cs. At 7pm, the wind started blowing and blizzarding. Snow drifted. Temperatures dropped 10 degrees while we were in the car. More ice was exposed. We got to J&Cs around 8pm. It was so nice to warm up. We even got fed dinner. We trekked to get Sara and headed home by 9pm.
All I can say, community is a blessing. I was physically unable to care for my kids. But, my friends helped me in such a tangible way.
