Traffic in DC

Yesterday, DC was hit with a mixture of rain and sleet right at rush hour time.

I heard on the radio a few weeks ago that part of our problem with traffic is that on any normal day at rush hour, the highways are filled to 120% capacity. One little thing goes wrong, and it's all over.

Yesterday, one big thing went wrong.

Anyone who has been to DC during the highway construction mess in the Springfield area has seen "the Mixing Bowl" in various stages of construction. It was finally completed last year and hailed as a marvel of construction, efficiency, and common sense. (If that's the case, please tell me why every time I drive to my sister's house, some idiot invariably cuts me off while he's trying to decide which of 3 exits that are smack on top of each other he wants to take?)

What the people who built it failed to contend with was freezing weather. And as we all know, when it freezes, bridges and overpasses freeze before any other parts of the roadway. And what is the Mixing Bowl? A huge collection of overpasses and underpasses and elevated highways. And what is the negative of living in this area when it freezes? These assholes don't know how to drive in bad weather, much less freezing weather. And so everyone started crashing. And Michael's vanpool got stuck in the mess.

The General left base at 3:30pm yesterday afternoon and strolled in our door at 10:00 last night. And I thought I was having a bad day. But they were actually in pretty jovial spirits considering. They were able to use an obliging bus nearby to go to the bathroom, once they broke free, they made a run for the border at Taco Hell, and when he rolled in, we laughed about how it's one he'll tell his grandchildren about. He called in sick for today, ate some dinner and hit the sack.

Thank God, I wasn't stuck in that nightmare. DRIVE SAFE, YOU DC IDIOTS! There ought to be a law against stupid drivers. Oh wait, there probably are.