For anyone living in the Nashville area, you can probably relate to my story last night. I was working around downtown Nashville yesterday when it started snowing. Within a short period of time the snow and ice had covered the streets and made driving very difficult. I finished up with my customers, packed my car up, looked at my clock and it was 5:45pm. I was only 10 miles from home and knew that I was going to hit rush hour traffic and in the snow it would take a little longer to get home. I had no idea.
The first couple of miles weren't bad. Traffic moved slowly but consistently. Then I turned on Nolensville Pike. For those who don't live here just know that I really despise this road because it is normally busy and everyone seems to drive really slow but it is one of those roads that I normally need to take to get home. As soon as I turned onto the street, all I could see was lines of red brake lights in front of me. I looked at my TomTom and it said I had 8 miles to go and I would be home. I knew it might take a little longer than usual but again I had no idea. After one hour I looked at TomTom again and it said I had 7 miles to go! I had literally gone only one mile in one hour! Oh, and I forgot to say that I had started this journey a little frustrated because it had not been the greatest work day for me. I was also hungry and again, for those who may not know - me and hunger do not go well together! (Some call it a "Kevin Mood" but I wouldn't say it's that extreme) I looked at my gas gage and I was getting close to empty so all of this mixed together was not a good combo for me. Of course, there was nothing I could do about it and I was certainly not the only one going through this - and so I tried singing to the music on the radio and laughing at my ownself - but after another hour went by I looked at TomTom and I had 6 miles to go! Two miles in two hours! People that were walking were going faster than we were. I called my sister, Cara, because I needed some human interaction to calm me down and as usual, we were laughing a lot about the situation and she was able to keep my spirits high despite the hunger issue and threat of running out of gas and being stranded in the freezing cold! Of course, Cara had made it into her warm home and was enjoying dinner as she tried to give me sympathy. Oh, and I did call my other sister, Christy. No answer, but when she did call me back, she gave me a 3 minute time limit on our conversation because it was a commecial break during Modern Family! (I actually understand though - I would have done the same ha!)
All I could think was - I have 6 miles to go and at this rate, it will take me 6 more hours before I get home! Ummm heck no!! I made my way through a few backroads and found my way to the interstate. It was moving slowly but traffic was at least moving. I finally made it home after 3 hours of driving! It was insane, but once I got home I started hearing other people's horror stories. It took some people 5 hours to drive a 10-15 mile commute and many people had wrecks or slid off into ditches - so I had to be thankful to even make it home. It just goes to show that we southerners are not used to all of this snow we've been getting and I also learned that my patience level is not quite what it used to be :)
In other news, it's been 4 days since I've had a coke of any kind and I'm doing pretty good! I've also cut back on meat consumption and fast food. I do have to confess that on the way home I did stop at McDonald's to get food but I felt I deserved it - and I didn't get a coke (although in my opinion, McDonald's has the best coke)
Today was a much better day. I didn't work because of the snow and so I got a lot of house cleaning done and laundry. House-cleaning is much more fun with your iPod and dancing around! I have to say that one of my favorite things is to sit down on the couch knowing my house is very clean! It's a great feeling! Let's see what tomorrow brings...
Today I am grateful for: 1. Getting home safely last night 2. Cara (and Christy) helping to keep me in a good mood while driving 3. This morning's focus time talking about serving others 4. A clean house 5. My Blue Coast Burrito dinner tonight (it had been awhile)
No comments:
Post a Comment