The Long Journey Home

It took me 7 hours to get home during the epic thunder snow of January 26th, 2011.

• 2 hours on the train

  F-ing Metro was single tracking both Red and Orange lines for non-snow related reasons.

• 1.5 hours waiting for a bus

  My toes began to freeze. Many people were not adequately dressed. Needed to pee, but no bathroom or convenient tree.

• 2 hours on the bus

  Couldn't get off the first two exits because they were blocked by accidents.

  When we're still on 66, at the nearest point to my house, someone shouted, "Let me out here." I laughed, but then the driver opened the doors. A dozen people bolted, myself included. Stupid thing to do, since we had to cross 2 lanes of traffic, but we would have easily been on the bus for another 2-3 hours with no guarantee that I'd be any closer to home and the traffic was at a dead stop anyways.

  We had to scale a fence to get off of 66 (we were behind the Fair Lakes shopping center). I go over, then help others, including an old man who nearly fell off. The police show up and demand that we stop. He grabs 2. The rest of us flee like migrant workers from La Migra.

• 1.5 hours to walk 1.5 miles home.

  I help 4 people dig their cars out. Someone offered me food (I was tempted, but refused). I checked half a dozen stalled cars to see if anyone needed help. Only one was occupied, he'd been waiting 5 hours for his mother. Witnessed a nasty accident on Stringfellow. No one was hurt.

  I arrived home just in time to direct the ambulance to a neighbor's house (She's OK now).

Call me Odysseus.

UPDATE: Col. Drinkmore offers some sage advice, but did he have to be so mean to me?