The freezing of a city

I love snow, I really do. I do not, however, love rush-hour snow. And I do not understand how 3 inches of snow can paralyze a city. Tuesday we got the only significant snow fall that we have gotten this entire winter, and I have to admit, as I was sitting at work, not working, instead watching the snow fall, I was excited. I didn't expect, though, that people would act like the appocolypse had come.

About 3:45, I left work and headed for the gym. The roads weren't bad, you just had to go a little slower than you normally would. NOAA said that the snow would continue, but there wasn't a blizzard or ice storm coming. So, I headed out, making my first in a long series of mistakes. I should have gone to the gym in Hilliard, much closer to my house; that's what common sense told me, but the gym at Polaris (by work, but 30 minutes from my house on a good day) had an abs class at 5:00, so I could get my 6 miles in and then top it off with some abs before I headed home. Plus, the treadmills at Polaris face the window and I would be able to watch the snow (I really did take this into consideration when I was deciding).

About 4:50, the announcement came. No abs class due to the bad weather. Crap. I decided to not be stubborn, instead to be responsible (so I thought) and head home since it was still snowing and it would probably take me a little longer than usual. No abs.

On the road. I headed towards the on ramp to 71 S and I sat without moving for 10 minutes before I began to lose my patience. I should take the back roads, I thought to myself. Clearly, no one is moving on the freeway. Mistake number 2. I turned around and attempted to make my way down Polaris Parkway (mistake number 3). It was 6:30 before I even made it off Polaris (about 1 mile). Go back to the freeway, I kept telling myself. But I was pinned in--I would have to forge ahead.

I now understand that I should have just waited to get on the freeway. This isn't the first time my impatience got the better of me, nor will it be the last. It was painfully clear the next day when my co-workers who did have the patience to wait in line, informed me that they arrived home after only an hour commute. Normally, this would sound ridiculous, but after my two hour and 45 minute trip, it sounded heavenly. What I don't understand is why I kept hearing reports on the radio about how awful ALL the freeways were. From the sound of the traffic report, you would have thought that the freeways looked like the pictures you see of throngs of people fleeing a hurricane. Apparently, that's what all the roads I traversed looked like. The freeways were just a little slow.

The other thing I don't understand is how that small amount of snow can make an entire city come to a stop. Syracuse, New York got 4 feet--that is about 45 inches more than we got. And they have somehow managed to survive. But in Columbus, we had to watch news reports from the "salt barns" and updates on the progress of the snows plows as if we had been hit by a blizzard.

I made several more mistakes on the way home--turned in the wrong places, mainly. Mistakes that on a normal day would have only set me back a few minutes, but on that day, proved monumental.