The Blizzard of '05

Have you ever had one of those situations where you think it can’t get worse, but it does? Well, my boys and I were stuck in snow-slowed traffic for about four hours on Tuesday, without enough food or water. Talk about a freakin’ nightmare. The weather was that perfectly horrible combination of rain and snow, and the timing was ideal for a disaster; we set out at 3:30, just as millions of commuters swarmed out of their offices early to beat the weather. Therefore, it took us about 4 hours to drive 13 miles. Eeach baby slept for about two hours, and cried for about two hours, but not at the same time, of course. I ran out of snacks after about 30 minutes, and was digging for Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies between the seat cushions. I also found some raisins, so I was able to give them little bites here and there, but I am sure they needed more. I became increasingly worried about the babies with every hour; if I was hungry, they must be hungry too. I was really frightened by the fact the car tires were skidding on the ice and snow and whenever I had to stop it took some lurching and spinning to get us moving again. When we were forced to stop on a hill, man oh man, I almost panicked – we spun out and ended up in the middle of the road. I managed, with the help of a guy in a snowplow, to get back to the side of the road, but the side with the oncoming traffic, oops. To put the cherry on the top of our sundae of sweat inducing worry, the car indicator kept beeping to remind me, “Please refuel! You have about 5 miles left…”

I was relating this story to my father, and telling him how I felt so guilty about screaming, “Just be quiet! There is no food!” at my boys a few times. My father said, “You poor thing! I myself was trapped by the weather in the Tampa Airport on my way home from a conference. If I had known it was going to be so long I would have gone to this really nice restaurant in Tampa, but I had to miss out on it, and eat at the airport cafe.” Oh, you poor thing! That must have been a sad disappointment to you, I know how terrible it is to have to eat at an airport.

I told my mother about the ordeal today, and her story was, “On Tuesday it took me 20 minutes to get home from the fish shop. It was so frustrating, there must have been five cars stuck on the hill!”

Oh, Mother, that must have been terrible for you.