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endured one of the more frightening rides home of my life...

I had to go out this afternoon to pay a bill that needed to be paid in person (long story). After paying the bill, I unwisely to stop in at the JoAnn Fabric store just a few buildings down. When I left, the roads were not great but they were manageable, especially to someone who's driven on bad roads pretty much every winter since she got her license.

One of my biggest fears while driving in bad weather is getting stuck on a hill. Which...I kind of did. On the way home, I was halfway up a steep hill, in a long line of cars, when traffic just...stopped. I still don't know why. Accident? It took that long for the school at the top of the hill to let all the buses and cars out? Whatever the case, I was just sitting there midway up the hill from a good 5 minutes. We finally got moving again, and I made it up the hill only to get stopped right in front of the school for another 10 minutes. Meanwhile, there's a slow but steady stream of traffic coming the other way. After we get moving again, we get stopped a third time, for another 10 minutes or so, on a slight incline. By now, the plow has gone down the other side of the road, making it clear but wet. Our side? Almost pure ice. Every time I set the car in forward motion again, it took a moment for the tires to get purchase. After the third stop, it was slow but steady going, and the roads got better. Again, I have no explanation for the delays...and if it WAS an accident, couldn't we have taken turns driving on the cleared side of the road? Adding to the problem: on this particular stretch of road, there's no side streets to turn onto except for dead end streets.

And then I get home and Dad's not here. He'd said he "had" to go to Walmart one town over, which is a lie--the only reason he'd have to go to Walmart is to pick up prescriptions and he just got a fresh 3 month supply of everything at the end of November. There was absolutely no reason he needed to leave the house today; this snowstorm is supposed to be over by early tomorrow afternoon. He got home about 20 minutes after me with a similar story. I wanna be mad but really I'm just grateful we both got home safely.