From what I understand, traffic was a nightmare this morning. I handled the problem by taking the boys with me to work armed with books, iPods, and breakfast. I wasn't going to let Keeper Boy walk down to the bus stop (which doesn't exist at the moment because it's buried under a mountain of snow). When it was time to take them to school, we left my office and headed back into our subdivision, competing in what could be the next X-Games sport: Subdivision Mogels. Seriously. The roads in the subdivision are ridiculous.
No problems dropping J-Mav off. While the Kiss and Ride wasn't open in front of the school (his is along the road) because there was nowhere for the kids to get out of their cars and walk, they were funneling cars through the u-shaped drive in front of the school (where the busses drop off) and all was smooth. They had TONS of staff outside directing parents where to go to drop off their precious cargos. It went well. I then did another round of Subdivision Mogels to get over to Keeper Boy's school.
Keeper Boy's school has a dedicated Kiss and Ride drop-off. You turn [right only] into the school, go through the staff parking lot, and go into a separated lane to drop the kids off. Then you leave, turn out of the parking lot [again, right only] and go on your merry way. When there isn't all this snow on the ground, this is a smooth and painless process. Not today.
The crux of the problem was three cars that were parked along the road somewhat in front of the school. High school students (because the high school is right behind Keeper Boy's school, and I guess not all the high school kids have a parking permit or something). Anyway, those cars being there meant that only one lane could get past that point in the road. Stick with me here... I'll call the road that runs in front of the school School Road. Anyone coming east on School Road in the morning has to pass the entrance to the Kiss and Ride, go to the next street, turn left, go up to the first cross street, do a u-turn and get in the Kiss and Ride drop-off line. Anyway coming west on School Road has to merge into the drop-off line with the people who came east and had to do the u-turn procedure. Again, this is normal, everyday procedure and not a huge deal. The problem was getting OUT of the Kiss and Ride.
Everything was backed up because of those cars parked on the street. That choke point was not very far away from a bigger road where there is a traffic light. So the crossing guard (who was trying to do her job AND direct traffic through the choke point) could only let the eastbound cars back up for so long... otherwise they would be backing up the major road, too. That meant backing up the Kiss and Ride line. Keep in mind that you ONLY go right when you leave the Kiss and Ride, so you had no other option but to go past that choke point. It was VERY frustrating.
I actually ended up doing a u-turn in the street while a bus was blocking the road and I knew on one would be coming the other way and heading back east on School Road and working my way out of the subdivision on another street so I could get back to the office for a staff meeting that I was, at that point, 20 minutes late for. Hopefully something will be done tomorrow to prevent anyone from parking along that street.
Other than that frustration, it would seem that things are getting back to what passes as normal in my world. :) My children left me this lovely artwork on my office whiteboard; it is apparently all the characters from Spongebob Squarepants.
As I typed this, I received an email from the school system that they will resume opening at normal time tomorrow. WOO HOO!
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