Here in My Car

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Because of the major overhaul of the Wilson bridge, the Beltway is being widened. This is a good thing, but the process is killing the commute. On Monday VDOT shut down the Eisenhower Avenue exit, which means that all of the folks who normally take that exit (me included because I stopped going down to Telegraph Road when the construction started down there - it’s an utter mess. I’ll have to bring my camera one day to take pictures of the mess and the traffic.) are now forced into taking the Telegraph Road exits. To make matters worse, there are no shoulders at all on either side of the highway, so the smallest fender bender becomes a major incident.

Like today, where there was a fender bender between a can, a taxi, and an 18-wheeler on the right just past the Eisenhower Ave exit. This resulted in a fender bender between Van Dorn and Eisenhower on the left. Imagine the back up.

*bangs head on desk*

It took me 45 minutes to drive a stretch of road that normally takes about 10-15 minutes.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

A Fairfax County cop died in a training accident and his funeral is today. There’s a huge motorcade/procession this morning and as a result they shut down all exits onto the Outer Loop of the Beltway from Braddock Road to Route 1 in Alexandria (basically, that’s I-95N headed into Maryland). They expect 3000-5000 cars, not people but cars, and that it will take at least 1 full hour for the procession to clear. That means that a major interstate is shut down to all northbound traffic in late rush hour. That is insane.

Fortunately for me, I woke up earlier than I have been and managed to get on the Beltway 10 minutes before they closed my entrance. I walked into my office at 9:05am.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

On my drive to work, I was surprised to see a very large turkey at the edge of some woods on a rather busy road. They’re not that common in this part of Virginia.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

I left the Richmond office at 4:00pm on the dot. I walked in the door at home at 8:15pm or so. It’s normally a 2 hour drive.

Beau said that reports on the TV were that the traffic was the worst since 9/11. Given what I saw, I believe it.

At 6pm I passed a sign that said I was 4 miles from the I-495 exit that I needed to take. I called Beau to let him know that’s where I was and that I would be later than planned. Exactly one full hour later I was at that exit and we were not moving. We hadn’t moved for about 20 minutes when I finally called Beau again to try to figure an alternate route home. Traffic was moving on the I-395 side of the highway, so I opted to take my chances on 395N. As I curved through the Mixing Bowl, I saw nothing but stopped cars in all directions. On 395S traffic must have been stopped long enough that most cars were turned off and there were several pockets of people standing outside chatting. For me, 395N was wide open and I got to the exit I was going to take quickly. And then crawled for about 40 minutes to Braddock Road. Once on Braddock, I got moving again and got home in about 30 minutes after a quick stop for dinner at McDonald’s.

I’m watching American Idol before hitting the hay. I’m not looking forward to getting in my car in the morning to face more icy roads and awful traffic. *sigh*

Thursday, January 17, 2008

We figure we’ve got about 4” of snow on the ground already. They’re saying ice on top of that, so getting to tomorrow morning’s early appointment with the pediatric orthopedist should be an adventure.

I left the office a little after noon, since I work from home anyway. I’ve been cranking away at work since I arrived.

It was snowing pretty hard when I left the office. Just snow though. When I got to the Beltway I started to hear the sleet - so we had a mixed bag of stuff falling from the sky. By the time I got to the exit I normally take it was just sleet. At this point I had decided that I was going to stop at McD’s for lunch on my way home, using my regular route instead of attempting the drive on I-66. It turns out this was a good decision ultimately.

So I got my lunch and got back on the road and the snow had mixed back in with the sleet. And I chomped on my lunch while poking along in traffic. I made good, if slow, progress. And then I got to an intersection where I was going to turn right onto a parkway when I noticed a car off to the right and straddling the ditch.

Not knowing if anyone had stopped or how long the car had been there, I decided to check on the driver. So I pulled over as far as I could and put on my hazards and got out to check. I found a woman in her 60s frantically searching through her purse. I tapped on the window. She rolled it down and I asked her if she was OK. Was she injured? Did she need an ambulance? She said she was fine, but couldn’t find her phone to call AAA. She then handed her AAA card to me to ask if was still good. I verified that her card was still valid and told her to close her window while I went back to get my phone for her to use.

Then came the really frustrating part. She called the local number on the card first and after pushing the number to get some help all she got was their internal hold/advertising recordings. She listened for a while and then hung up, never having talked to a person. So I dialed the 800 number and got the exact same thing. No help from AAA, which is supposed to provide roadside assistance. But if you can’t get to a person to relay your need for the assistance, then they’re pretty useless, no?

I called 911 and reported the one car accident and emphasized that the car was straddled over a ditch and the dispatcher assured me that he was sending someone out to help. After I hung up I asked the woman if she wanted to call her family. She said no. I asked if she wanted me to wait with her and she waved me off, thanking me for my help. I said she was welcome and admonished her to stay warm and I got back into my car and continued home. But I still wonder if I should have waited with her anyway since there’s no telling how long of a wait she had before any police arrived. I’m praying it wasn’t too long. She was really frazzled, poor thing.

I wish I had had my camera, because the I still don’t know how she got her car where it was and with no visible damage. I took a good look at the skid marks in the snow and the dirt spray, but it didn’t make it obvious from where she came or if she got turned around or if there was spinning. I bet it was a scary ride, though, because she was in a bit of a precarious position over the ditch and it wasn’t going to be easy to get her towed out.

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

I love you and I hate you.

It took 2 hours to get to the office today, with a 10 minute stop to drop off Jesse at Marmie’s house. It took twice as long to get to Marmie’s because a car hit a power pole and crews were cleaning up that mess. Beau encountered it first and called to warn me. By the time I got to the area the wrecked SUV was on the tow truck. But that side of the road was completely closed and the police were detouring traffic. I’m glad I don’t head in that direction in the AM.

Then the flurries increased to light snow as I got further down the road and it was just S-L-O-W. Fortunately the Beltway in my direction was wide open. Once I got on that I got to the office in the normal 15 minutes that it takes at that point in the long drive.

At least I got a lot of my current book listened to on the way.

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

So we were driving home on Saturday night. It was dark, about 7pm, and we were approaching a small intersection when a car in the left turn lane on the opposite side started to come through. Beau slammed the brakes and we stopped within about a foot of hitting that car. A car zoomed past us on the right. Fortunately no one was behind us or we surely would have been hit from behind.

I told Beau that I had three thoughts in those split seconds:

1. I’m gonna get burned by this hot coffee in my hand. Don’t spill the coffee!

2. Jesse!

3. Beau!

He laughed and said, “Gee, thanks for thinking of me at all.”

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Let’s pick up from late yesterday afternoon, when I left work 30 minutes early in order to arrive home closer to 6pm than 6:30pm knowing that we needed to leave no later than 6:45pm in order to arrive at the church for small group leader orientation on time. At 6pm I was still making my way home in heavy traffic and I eventually arrived at home at 6:30pm. I’m so glad I wasted the half hour of leave and the time on the road. No doubt if I had left at 5:30pm like I usually do the result would have been the same.

So I arrived home to discover an unappetizing dinner in the crockpot (over-cooked chicken - woo), that I didn’t have the time to eat because I finished feeding Jesse while Beau ate. Then we spent more time changing Jesse’s diaper/outfit than normal because he still has slightly runny poo. Thankfully that is getting better, but it’s still a gross mess. We actually left the house at 7pm, but it only took 15 minutes to get to the church and we weren’t the last ones to arrive.

The orientation was good, but I was so out of it from the long day and commute that I completely forgot to pick up the chafing dish with the ingredients I need to make the food for the forum this weekend. With the still full crockpot of last night’s dinner we now have no room in the frig for that, so I’ll have to go get it tomorrow morning. My plan is to cook the food while Beau is at the forum tomorrow night and after Jesse has gone to bed. The way this week is going, Jesse will decide that he wants to par-tay and I won’t get to the cooking until 10pm.

In the meantime, I have a crazy day at the office today because I wasn’t able to complete yesterday’s tasks because I was hounded all day by HQ about the two vouchers they had asked us to send over for the auditors. (Who schedules an audit for September anyway? I’m sure that’s the last thing the folks in finance at HQ want to deal with in the last two weeks of the fiscal year.) I may end up working on Saturday, too, because I have a deadline on a couple of things and there aren’t enough work days between now and then.

I’m hoping that traffic is better tonight so that we have a smoother transition from when I get home to when we have to leave for dinner at our small group host’s home. To be honest, I wish we could reschedule the dinner, but we really can’t since we need to all be on the same page before the Group Link thing on Sunday. There’s no other time to do this.

What I want most in the world right now is to get away from it all. Just to grab Beau and Jesse and get in the car and go far, far away from the daily grind. I’m tired and cranky and overwhelmed and not fun to be around right now. I don’t even like being in my own head. I hate that I’m having to fake being nice when I really want to rip the heads off of everyone I encounter.

When I get like this I wonder if I have PMDD. I’m pretty sure I don’t have PMDD, but probably just severe PMS. But I get to this point often enough that I plan to ask my doctor about it, though.

Anyway, I’m praying for a good day. *sigh* I think closing my office door is in order today, too.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

I left on time this morning and arrived at Marmie’s with Jesse only to realize that I left his lunchbox on the kitchen table. She has bottles and formula, but no solid food. So I schlepped back home to get that and then back to her house to drop it off. The silver lining was the extra listening time for the audiobook I’m close to finishing. That’ll be completed on the drive home.

So I lost 30 minutes this morning and I’ll lose 30 minutes when I have to leave early tonight in order to get home, eat a quick dinner, and get to church for our small group leader orientation.

*sigh*

At least I remembered to get the chicken and veggies into the crock pot this morning so that we actually have a dinner to eat tonight.

And now I need to get back to work. It’s going to be another busy day.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

So…

Jesse woke up at about 3:15am. Not because he was in pain or whatever; he was just wide awake. When he started the screaming crying I yelled at Beau to just bring him to bed with us (I know! But I need sleep!). Beau handed him to me, I snuggled him in close, he settled down and konked back out.

The alarm went off at 5:20am. I got up, leaving Beau and baby in the bed while I brushed teeth and whatnot before heading downstairs. Since Beau was getting up soon as well, I carefully picked up Jesse to put him back in the crib. I was hoping he’d continue to sleep so that I could do what I needed to do before I got in the shower. Fortunately (and amazingly), I was able to lay him down, plug in the pacifier when it fell out, and he stayed asleep.

Headed to the basement to release the hound. This is a post of its own, but I won’t bore you with the harrowing story of encountering a befouled crate every morning. Side note: we did sell the too large crate last week and managed to find a smaller crate as well. I’m not convinced she’s liking the smaller crate better given the befouling occurring (Who wants to lay around in urine and fecal matter? Apparently, my dog.). Anyway, usually Annie starts barking before I manage to get up. This morning I got down there before the barking started and found the crate clean!  Yay! I walked Annie briefly - long enough for her to do her bidness.

Back inside, I got coffee and set about putting the beef stew together in the crock pot. I didn’t do it last night because I’m always afraid the potatoes will spoil overnight and since I knew I needed to do the potatoes this morning, I decided to just do it all. Onions, potatoes, carrots, and celery got cleaned, peeled, and chopped. Stew beef was added to the pot. I didn’t have a can of stewed tomatoes, so I just used a can of tomato sauce. Garlic, S&P, and tapioca. Quick stir. Pot set on low and we’re going to have a delicious hearty meal ready to eat when I get home.

All of this was done before 7am. Actually, it was just after 6:30am. Beau got his shower while I was prepping the stew. Jesse was still sleeping, the prince. Oh, and I had made his bottle for when he woke up and gotten his breakfast and lunch stuff in the pack to take to Marmie’s. She told me he’s in for a treat this morning with their first day at MOPS at church - 81 one moms and about 150 children! I’ll be interested to hear how he does since we still don’t put him in the nursery (and that’s a separate post someday, too).

So I managed to get into the shower at about 6:45. Beau left shortly after 7am. Jesse woke up at 7:15am. I managed to finish getting ready for work before Jesse got too upset at hanging out in the crib now that he was awake. Got him changed and into the carseat where he sat happily drinking formula from his sippy cup. Walked Annie and put her in the crate with fresh water. Got my stuff into the car and then went back to get Jesse to put in the car. We drove out at about 7:50am. Got to Mom’s at about 8:15am (traffic getting out of the neighborhood was a nightmare).

I feel like I had a full day before I even got to the office.

Being a working Mom is way harder than they tell you.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

So my new long commute sux. Audiobooks are saving my sanity.

My neighborhood is off of a two lane road. This morning that road was really backed up and when I got to the light at the end it was to find four of Fairfax County’s finest, lights flashing while they sat at the shoulder. They had about six or seven cars pulled over, presumably for expired safety stickers. Asinine.

Later, traffic was backed up near the high school I pass as I get closer to the Beltway. A speed trap was set up at this intersection that they like - there’s a big incline with lots of old trees that hide their cars well. There were about four lawmen pulling over cars who were ignoring the 35 MPH speed limit - I think I saw about eight cars pulled over.

The bumper sticker of the day - Regime Change Begins at Home: Elect a Democrat. Uh huh.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Working at the office today because of a meeting that I must attend this afternoon.

It was weird to drive in on a Monday morning. Traffic was so much better than it is on Tuesdays. Remember my Theory of Tuesday Morning Traffic - that enough people take Mondays off that traffic is light and then Tuesday is really Monday on the roads. It’s like the Thursday Evening Traffic theory - same thing except that it’s Fridays evening traffic that’s better because people take that day off a lot.

I have a busy day ahead - timekeeping since I can’t do that at home and I’ll be at home tomorrow. Plus we have financial close out on Wednesday, so I need to prep tasks for that to take home. And the meeting, which should be long and tedious.

More later - I have a movie review from the weekend.

Friday, September 08, 2006

I drove the new car this morning and almost from the start things went nuts.

First, I was on Burke Road headed toward Burke Lake Road. Burke Rd is a short two lane road that widens at the light at Burke Lake Rd (a T intersection) to accommodate the left and right turners. I noticed a car zooming up behind me as I got closer to the light and before I knew it she was moving to come around my left. To avoid an accident, I hit the brakes, moved to the right, and laid on the horn. Oblivious, the chick continued on as if nothing was wrong, talking on her cell phone, and slammed to a stop at the red light. Just mere seconds later, I pulled to a stop behind her. I guess she was in a hurry.

Second, I was on the Beltway in the middle right lane (of a 4 lane interstate) cruising at about 65 mph. I decided to move to the far right lane to get out of the way of faster traffic when I noticed a car in my left side mirror move into the middle right lane as I started to move to my right. I had barely gotten fully over when he hit the gas and zoomed by, leaving barely inches between our cars on his way. He then had to slam brakes when he came up on a bunch of cars in all lanes that weren’t traveling at his rate of speed.

Third, I was almost hit by a bumble bee yellow mustang in the Merge of Madness™ because he didn’t yield as he should have. That was followed by being cut off by a state trooper in the second half of said Merge™.

Is it a full moon tonight or something?

[LATER]: I couldn’t find my fine artwork of the MoM™s from a few years ago - they were on the server with my old host and I guess I never downloaded them back to keep. So they’re lost. Instead, I employed Google Maps to find the intersection in question - link here - and scanned the area, added notes, and uploaded that. They’re not the clearest, but you get the idea.

Merge of Madness™
Merge of Madness™, part two

Friday, May 05, 2006

Today’s Useless Convenience: Pay at the Pump.

I was down to about a quarter tank and I wanted to run my car through the wash, so this morning I stopped to fill up at a station that has a car wash. I ran my credit card through the slot, chose the octane, and pumped the gas. When the tank was full, I replaced the nozzle and pressed “Yes” when asked if I wanted a car wash. My receipt printed, I grabbed it, and got into my car where I proceeded to pull into the drive for the car wash. There was a car in there, so I waited patiently until he was pulling away and then I looked at my receipt to get the code for the keypad.

“Please See the Cashier for the Code,” it read.

There followed some cussing.

I backed out of the car wash drive and drove to the cashier door and stomped to the counter. “I need the car wash code,” I said curtly as I handed over my receipt. The dude tore off the bottom portion of the receipt and printed a new receipt thing with the code.

By the time I got back into my car, another car was at the key pad, so I decided to save the wash for another day in order not to be late to work.

I do not understand the necessity for requiring customers who pay at the pump and buy the car wash to have to go into the shop to get the code from the cashier. The whole point is the convenience for the customer. It’s not like a customer can steal the car wash that way - the card is read before you can even purchase the gas. Makes no sense and it’s maddening.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Traffic has been terrible since Spring Break ended after Easter. I don’t know why it’s still bad this week. All I know is that it took me nearly a full hour to get to work this morning and that’s double the normal time. Very frustrating.

The most maddening thing occurred at the intersection of Braddock Road and Burke Lake Road. I take Burke Lake Road, which ends at the intersection with Braddock with two right turn lanes. The right-right turn lane is usually always moving because it feeds into its own lane - no traffic on Braddock feeds directly into that lane because it is where Braddock widens into three lanes as it gets closer to the Beltway intersection. So I ended up about 5 cars behind this car that never made the turn. The Jeep directly behind kept inching closer to the front car’s rear bumper, but he never honked his horn or did anything else to encourage the lead car to make the turn. So I honked a couple of times. Still no movement. And so we sat at the light for the full cycle and then made the move when our light turned green.

I passed that lead car a little while later to find a woman on her cell phone.

And I’ll end that part of story with that little tidbit.

The next frustration occurred in the garage. I park in one half of our two part garage and then I have to cut across into the other half to get to the elevator. Got to the elevator to find a sign indicating that it is out of order, so I had to schlep back across to the other garage to get to the freight elevator which only goes to the 2nd floor.

It’s a good morning! */sarcasm*