Snow Day

Well. So, when they say "no travel advised" they actually MEAN "no travel advised". While I was able to scooter to work on Friday, I could see that would be ill-advised today.

So, I set out for work this morning, caught my usual bus in front of the house just running 2 minutes late. Got downtown just in time for my transfer to the St Paul express, and it was nowhere to be seen. It eventually showed up about 13 minutes late, and wisely didn't pull too close to the curb; part of the entertainment for the previous 13 minutes was watching a number 14 bus try to get unstuck and moving forward again.

40 of my closest friends and I climbed aboard with the 60 or so people already onboard, and we crept along out of Minneapolis, getting to the freeway at the time I'd normally be at work. And that was it. About halfway along the ramp we had to stop for traffic ahead, and the bus kind of lurched and jack-knifed right up to the curb as the driver braked - the back end swung way out slick as if we were playing crack the whip. Ahead of us, an earlier bus was pretty much perpendicular across the lane of traffic. We sat for about 30 minutes to see if it would clear, and another bus managed to spin out behind us blocking any hope of backing up (it would have been unlikely, but it was now thoroughly impossible.) Sat for another 45 minutes, and decided to hike back into town, so walked the 300 or so yards back down the ramp, past the perpendicular bus behind us, and trying to avoid the stalwarts still trying to negotiate past the blockage.

Smiled and chatted with the nice WCCO camera guy, and continued on to the lightrail station, which was the closest stop heading back into city center. Fortunately, the trains seemed to be running smoothly, though very crowded. At about 9:30 am, I caught the train, ending my efforts to get to work, which had begun at 6:45 am.

Went to the gym, took a brisk swim and warming steam, then ventured out and caught a bus back home again.

I'm "working from home" therefore.