Monday, August 22, 2005

Commuting Stories from Hell :: Part One

I was driving to work last Monday; the first time I had driven to work from our new place. People had been telling us that the road we lived on was the best to drive west to work. There are only a few roads that go the entire 10 miles without dead-ending at a highway. So I'm all psyched. I've got my sunglasses and my morning diet coke and the radio loud and I am so happy that I only have to drive 11 miles to work instead of the 40 miles I was driving before. No longer would it take me an hour and a half each way. I'm thinking, 20 minutes, max.

One hour and 5 minutes later I walk into work. My hair has frizzed out of the ponytail. My coke is long gone, the can thrown to the floorboards.

All along the road the 'people' had said was so great, traffic was stopped. There were four schools in sessions relegating 15mph speed limits and then the road suddenly goes from four to two lanes.

And as I drove by an intersection just a few short blocks from my home I noticed that the road was wet. I thought it odd to have only rained in such a small area. But then the news portion of my radio station came on and made the announcement:

"A police check-point has just been lifted off the corner of blank and blank. There are still several police cars in the area and they are still hosing the blood off the sidewalk due to the homicide this morning. Man A was found dead outside the local check cashing store and another, still alive, was found inside. This incident has caused a large back up for this mornings commuters."

Where the hell do we live?

No comments: