Ah Winter - and the story of the 10.5 hour commute

Ah, beautiful! Who wouldn't want to wake up on a sunny Thursday morning...
              to bask in the rays of the sun
                        from the warmth of the house...
                                while looking out at the beautiful snow covered trees?

It was a beautiful sight to behold, but to stop here would leave off the most important part of the story - how it came to be that I was able to take this picture from my bed late in the morning.

Where shall I begin - long story alert...

The afternoon before (Wednesday, January 26th), the office closed early, and here I am about 3 hours in to my commute a little after 7:00 p.m.:



Realizing all the major routes (395, 95, 495) were closed:


Around 8 p.m. when I thought a UFO was over the stoplight - and I caught the green sky on video:


Me talking again at 8:50 p.m. after some people pushed me up a hill and when I thought I was a mile from GMU (which I wasn't):


Luckily, I had peanut butter cookies:


9:24 p.m. at a strip mall parking lot (no gas station and almost on empty):


Lots of people stuck in a parking lot of all places. It doesn't look like much snow, but whatever it was (snow,ice,slush, rain), it was not cooperating with our cars.


10:46 p.m. - already forgetting what date it was:


Realizing that I should probably show what my view was for about 10.5 hours:


Hand exercises at 11:18 p.m. to stay occupied:


Took a picture to have a break from the video setting:

11:35 p.m. and I'm so over the whole experience:


Don't laugh at that last one - I was going crazy.


Sitting in the same spot - at almost midnight:



Turning off the car - almost out of gas:


Grown man going to the restroom (or not) right in front of us:


I'm not the only one taking pictures and videos along the way:


12:33 in the morning -a glimpse of the university:



So, if you got to this point (which most people probably didn't), you know that there was no way I was going in to work the next day after arriving home around 2 a.m.

But, blessings abound -good samaritans all over the place, I didn't run out of gas (shocking since I had only put $10 in an empty tank the day before) and I got home safely.

Here's to little traffice adventures and traffic inspired sick days....though I actually did work a bit the next day..but, from home and in my bed (which is where I took the pictures from the first part of the post).

Snow Mania - Blizzard 2010

My car was under a few feet of snow last week and then the plow came through. Yep, the mound is just as big as it looks. Almost four feet high and at least four feet wide and right in front of my car.
My neighbors and I have spent many hours over the last few days digging out. Half of it was caused by the snow plow and not the actual storm. I'm not complaining. I've probably spent over 6-7 hours shoveling over the last couple of days. Combine that with all my walking on my treadmill and it should do the body good.

The federal government was closed today and so I ventured out. Yikes. The roads are still not good. Even the road near my house that has at least 100,000 on it everyday of the week. It's looking like tomorrow will be a good day to stay at home too. Luckily, my heat works, my Internet works and the tv works. Books are always available, but the technology sure helps.

Now, we'll see how much the Tuesday storm dumps on the east coast. The story keeps changing (much like fisherman) and each time the snow expectations get bigger.
Thank you el Nino! As long as the sun shines every few days I'll be fine.




Update to this post - this was in draft mode for over a week. I had four days off work and decided that Friday should be a day off out of principle. Ha. So, I don't go back to work until next Tuesday. What a great break! Though, just to not waste tax payer money I did work a few hours everyday.

Winter wonderland

More photos from the walk.

Snow Day

Proof that I did do a little work today.






















Proof that it did snow in Virginia for once!