my patience is stretched thin
I know I went on about driving slow and all, but there comes a point where enough is enough. I reached that point this morning. School was delayed two hours because of the suprise blizzard that froze Leah's feet and hands in such an unpleasant fashion, so when I left the house at 9:15 I a) thought I was leaving on the early side and b) expected there not to be any traffic. Everybody else had to do their commute at the regular time, right? Apparently not.
Instead, everyone in the greater Boston area was trying to get from Rt. 2 west on to 128 south, and doing so in the most selfish and inconsiderate ways imaginable. For a mile and a quarter before the interchange the right lane, which I got in as soon as I saw the backup, was stop and go--mostly stop, in fact. The reason for the delay was simple: hundreds of people, seeing the stopped cars, decided that they were the most important individuals on the planet and tried to get round the traffic jam, driving in the breakdown lane and cutting at the front of the line, or driving in the left lanes and cutting in the front of the lane. I was grinding my teeth with impotent rage. The worst part of it was, there wasn't even any backup on 128. The sole cause of the traffic problems were people being complete, pathetic jerks. Grr. It took me almost 20 minutes to go that mile and a quarter. I should have walked.
And then, when I got to school there was a phone company truck or something doing line work right where I wanted to drive my car, so just when I thought I had finally made it (and just barely on time, too) I had to make a considerable detour on streets I wasn't exactly sure would get me where I was going. What a wreck. The kids were a positive joy after all that.