Light Flurries My ASS!

Light Flurries of snow bring Raleigh to a stand-still.

Wednesday Jan 19, 2005 started out like any other ordinary January day. Cold, cloudy, and well, cold. Never even reached the freezing mark on the thermometer. Which really sucked, since one week previous it had been close to 75 degrees outside. But I was to find out that was the least amount of "suckage" the day would bring.

At around 11am it did actually start to snow outside. Big, fat, fluffy flakes. It looked kinda pretty in that way that only snowy days can be. The weather-guessers had predicted a "chance of light flurries with no real threat of accumulation" so those of us at work went about our job. As usual, on a crappy weather day, my job required me to travel between the two buildings where I work. After the second trip back and forth, it was plain that this was not going to be any "light flurry". There was already a good 1/2 inch sticking on the ground, and I had to clean off the windows of my car for the second time in a mere 30 minutes. Around 12:30 the phones started ringing. Schools were closing and parents needed to come get the kids.

Me? Well, I had a fairly important piece of equipment under test in building one, and a fair pile of documentation to get distributed in building two. It was supposed to be a short duration snow storm, it was early in the afternoon, and it just didn't phase me that it was snowing a bit. I did call my parents to check on them. They live about 90 miles south of work and weren't getting any snow at all. That's a good thing.

It did finally quit snowing around 2pm. Yeah, that's the truth. It changed over to little ice balls for about half an hour and then the precipitation quit all together. By this time, several people had left work due to the weather or kids or just to get out of work. You know how it is. I made up my mind to leave just as soon as I finished the equipment test in building 1. I was getting tired of cleaning my car windows off every time I had to go back an forth. That finished up at 3:30. I had a message on my desk phone from my dad...who's a big fan of the weather channel. And, being retired and a little hobbled healthwise, had little to do besides watch TV and keep an eye on any developing situations. Unfortunately, he was calling me about two "situations". One: Capitol Blvd. a.k.a. US Hwy 1, a.k.a my main road home was at a stand-still. Complete gridlock. Two: Cell phones were about useless as everyone and their relatives were using them for one reason or another. I headed out the door and onto the roads, anyway. I mean hell, I had plenty of groceries, but little or no beer. I had to get to a grocery store!

What you see above is a crappy picture of what 1-1/2 inches of "light flurries" of snow looks like. Actually, at 2:30 in the afternoon the weather had changed to sleet, so the "flakes" don't show up too well.

It's a 29 mile drive home from work and usually takes 45 minutes to an hour. This day was to be a little different. The first three miles weren't too bad. About 40 miles an hour with a sharp eye on the road ahead. Which suddenly filled up with brake lights and standstill traffic. Fortunately, it was at an intersection of a back road I knew that would take me past a grocery store. So I bought my beer. I put it in the trunk just in case there was any trouble on the rest of the drive. This back road actually dumped out back on US 1. And I found the source of the traffic jam. There were two 18 wheelers next to each other at the light. Stopped. Drivers out on the road walking around. It was on a downhill grade and there was no traffic ahead of them. Mystified me, so I made the right turn and headed on down the road. Only got about a mile and came to a dead stop once again. I had my camera with me and wanted to get some traffic jam shots. Naturally, I was trapped behind a huge SUV and had no view of the road ahead. After about an hour of creeping and stopping I saw the source of the traffic jam. Well, *a* source anyway. Another typically busy intersection. And traffice from the side streets was filling in any space that appeared ahead of our traffic. Turns out people were too wimpy to pull out into the intersection and wait there. They'd stop behind the line at the light and watch it change. Fortunately, the SUV driver in front of me was a typical self-centered swollen ego narrow-minded idiot and did the smart thing. We finally made it through that light. And creeped-stopped for another two miles and another hour or so. By that time I had quit watching the clock. The radio people were keeping the tunes going with occasional updates on the road conditions and cell-phone calls from listeners stuck in other parts of the city. Our "Belt-line" (the loop around the city) had been at a dead stand-still since 1pm. The radio station has an excellent view of part of the belt-line and were near the intersection of US 1 and said Beltline.

You see odd things in these situations. I saw a small pickup truck with chains on the rear wheels. The truck was moving forward, but not at the speed the rear wheels seemed to indicate. Turns out the front wheels weren't turning at all. I'm not sure what was going on there. And then there was the cab with a loose piston rod, or some other fatal-sounding condition in the engine. He just kept his rear wheels spining about about 10 mph....even when traffic wasn't moving at all. I had to laugh at that guy. I'd seen him driving along the shoulder of the road twice as he passed traffic...only to pass him again a little while later. Just where the fuck did he think he was going, anyway?

I saw at least 20 people with mouth hanging open, faraway stare straight ahead, and a finger buried at least one knuckle deep in their nose. Completely oblivious to the surroundings. C'mon people! You can get away with that at 65mph on the highway in light traffic. But stop-and-go at 5mph? People can see you!

After that hour of creeping, I had two things on my mind: Where was I going to hit a restroom and where was I going to leave the car so I could hit a restroom? The guy in the SUV gave up after a while, did a U-turn across the median and headed north. Oh, did I mention that there were 4 or 5 cars every few minutes headed north? And that was the only traffic on the north-bound side of the road. Anyway, I found an empty water bottle in the back seat floor board and hatched a plan. I think you can see where this is going. Problem was, everytime I'd get "everything" out...traffic would start rolling! It's really nerve-wracking being in that position, having vans or SUVs in the lane next to you, and rolling on an icy street. It tends to break your concentration....and your aim. I even watched a smaller SUV in the right lane slowly slide into the far guard rail on a bridge. Just outside my passenger window.

And the traffic problem? Another damn intersection and the same wimpy people were still ahead of me. We finally made it through that light and around a curve to find part of the real problem. A fairly steep hill and three 18-wheelers that couldn't quite make the hill climb. Traffic was funneled down to one lane to snake between the trucks. And it was going nowhere in a hurry. I finally got my chance and my concentration and a little "still time" to accomplish my personal mission. 16 ounces later and I'm feeling MUCH better. And just in time to snake between the trucks and on up the hill. Behind an idiot in a Mustang who, despite the evidence of all the traffic ahead of her pulling away at a blazing speed of 15mph, decided she should keep down to 5mph...just to be safe. It was an easy pass, and I made it. So did several people behind me.

It was a relatively easy drive from that point for another mile or so, until we came to *another* hill with more 18-wheelers in a similar positions as the last one. I guess once was enough practice and we slowly snaked around these guys, too.

After that second "stack" of 18-wheelers, the final part of the traffic snafu came into view. A cross road that evidently leads into all the newer developments in North Raleigh called Durant Road. At this point, US 1 becomes "Capital Blvd". Recall how Capital Blvd was supposed to be completely grid-locked?. Well, that was from all the people coming north on Capital, apparently to try to turn left on Durant. After us south-bounders got past Durant road, Capital Blvd was easy sailing. Provided you liked "sailing" on ice. That road was so white with ice, you couldn't see the stripes in the lanes! But it was wide open headed south. And when I finally passed over the Beltline, heck, there wasn't even any ice on the road anymore. You could sure tell where the politicians work. Inside the beltline, and through downtown, the roads were absolutely cleared. Not so much as a film of salt on the road. They looked like they'd been scraped and then brushed.

So, that's the story of the six hour drive home. 5-1/2 hours to travel 12 miles to the beltline, and 25 minutes to travel the remaining 17 miles to my apartment. They ended up blaming most of the problem on the fact that the city road crews had been out gathering leaves and stuff from the curbs when the snow started, and by the time the crews could get back in, and get their snowl-act together, it was too late. Blah, blah, blah, it's always something. I heard from people as far away as Arizona that the 1-1/2 inch of snow gridlock here in Raleigh had made the news. I guess it was a slow news day.