This is turning out to be a crappy day.
I got up late, found six inches of snow, the boy's school is closed and the girl's daycare will open three hours late. I rearrange our schedules for the day and head to work. But first the hummock of snow left by the damned plow has to be shovelled out of the way and both cars cleared off.
So I detect early on that this is one of the worst road-days that I've hit in over 340,000 miles of driving all over North America. Amazing really, for so little snow. OK, no problem, I'm late but I'll slow down. I have to.
On Sourland Mountain, where I live -- just down the road from where the Lindbergh baby was abducted, the roads were poorly plowed and left with no salt. The townships have created miles of ice rink. As I'm heading into a curve -- much too quickly (maybe 30?), the car ignores my feeble pawing at the wheel and rockets four feet up a snow-covered stone and earth palisade. I figured I wouldn't be hurt. I never really got scared. But the oncoming car did. I see the driver clearly through our two windows wearing a face of terror. She stomps on the brake (dumb, dumb, dumb) and slides sideways as I come right back down the embankement in front of her, across her lane, right back into mine and continue on as if nothing had happened. At this point I'm thinking that fortune is smiling on me and I'm not so pissed about being late.
That's when I hit the icy-ice and then the ditch. I'm normally better than this.
Fuck! After half an hour of mucking and pushing, my car is back on the road and my khakis are dirty and wet to the knee. And I'm an hour late. My meeting has already started and I'm not there. Did I mention that I live on Sourland Mountain? This is basically the spot in New Jersey that is the most remote place possible and still within a short commute to Princeton. And there's spotty cell reception. Right here, there is none. I can't call work.
So I drive on.
Having to stop for idiots failing to come up the mountain aside, I get to work an hour and a half late. And pissed. The guard at the front gate doesn't want to let me in because of the snow. Eventually he lets me tell him where I work and I procede.
And none of the folks in my meeting are coming to work today. Not a one of them. Except for dumb old me.
This is turning out to be a crappy day.
Sorry for the rant