Beyond baseball updates constantly, the Crackberry does have other value: entertainment during my 6 hour commute yesterday. Yes, I said 6 hours.
It all started with a 9am meeting in NY. I didn't want to go. There was going to be snow - a predicted 1 to 3 inches - in the afternoon. I envisualized myself and my co-workers trapped in Laquardia for a few hours due to shuttle delays. I told them: immediately after the meeting, I'm going right back to Boston. They scoffed at me. They implied I was being a big whiny baby. But we did go right back. We got on the 12pm shuttle back and it was already snowing in NY when we left. The flight was fine. We got in at 1:30 (40 min. late - on par for the shuttle). That is when the nightmare began.
See, we did not know when we left lower Manhattan at 10:30 am that the entire working population of the city of Boston would start evacuating between 12 - 1 pm due to the storm (which had changed from 1 -3 inches to 6 - 10 inches). We were flying into a trap.
Actual photo of the parking lot this morning. That car behind the snow? One of those huge Denali SUV's - the kind of car I need a boost to get in to.
We got off the plane to see perhaps an inch on the ground. No big deal. This is New England. My co-worker says he'll take the T back to the office. I said: oh no. I have my car, I'll drive you. It's a 5 minute drive this time of day.
2 hours later, my co-worker has abandoned ship at South Station to catch a train home and I begin my commute home. Traversing the streets of South Boston seemed easy at first, and then: gridlock. Gridlock is isn't even a strong enough word. There were whole 15 minutes spans of time where I didn't move at all. I just stared and stared at the white pickup truck in front of me and listened to Tom Caron wax on about the Mitchell report on 'EEI. Painful, painful, painful, excrutiating commute. One in which I could actually put my car in park, get out, clean off the accumulation, get back in the car and that white pickup would not have moved at all in front of me.
Eventually, I got so bored that I just started emailing people on the blackberry, calling people, texting people. Anything for entertainment. Some of my co-workers are probably thinking I'm a lunatic as I've now sent them my thoughts on everything under the sun.
Eventually we start running into abandoned cars, which just make things worse. I started wondering what would happen if I ran out of gas. I'm going to have to go to the bathroom at some point. Just as that thought crossed my mind I watched someone 2 cars ahead jump out and run into a patch of trees on the side of the road. Oh, this is so not good.
Finally, about a mile from home the traffic began to really move - I'm talking 15 mph - warp speed! Naturally, a big chunk of ice formed on my wiper blades causing most of the windshield to remain blurred. At the time, I was on a 4 lane road which was down to 2 lanes, with quite a bit of swirving going on. There's nowhere to pull over except into a snow bank! I can't stop. So I'm leaning way forward, Mr. Magoo style, to see out the 4 inch slice of clear windshield available to me.
Finally, 6 hours after leaving the airport, 10.5 hours after leaving NY, I arrived home.
Here is a stat for you:
20 minutes: Time for me to get to the airport when leaving at 4:45am 12/13
6 hours: Time for me to return from the airport when leaving at 1:30pm 12/13. That's an 1800% increase.
I can't believe I'm writing this down, when all I want to do is repress all memory of the experience and never drive on snow again.
