the snow-less snow day

It's 76 degrees with a blue sky.  A gorgeous fall day.  But it was a snow day....  sort of. 

My routine in the morning is to turn on the news while Rebecca drinks a cup of milk.  The big story this morning on the news is that a tanker truck crashed on the ramp of the highway just a minute from our house.  It was the ramp from one huge highway to another huge highway.  The tank contained gasoline, and the driver died.  Both highways were closed in both directions.

I told my husband because the intersection of those two highways is right by where he works and he would have to find a different way to get there.  But dummy me, I didn't even think about the fact that it would affect Rachel's bus route, as well. 

We went about the rest of our morning as usual, and were waiting for the bus, which didn't come.  When someone mentioned the crash, I put two and two together and realized that that's why the bus wasn't coming.  One by one parents decided to drive their kids to school, so I grabbed Rebecca (still in her PJs) and we piled in the van to head to school.  Rachel was about in tears.  Any change in plans, and she is all bent out of shape, and she wanted to ride the bus to school.

Well, I didn't get very far until I realized that not only was Rachel going to be late to school, but I wasn't sure I could even make it to school.  Every way I tried to go was either completely at a stand still or closed.  After 40 minutes, I wasn't even a mile from my house.  Then the last attempt to head in the direction of school was blocked by a police car.  I couldn't even go that way.  I had to head home.

Rachel sobbed most of the way home (which took another 40 minutes).  She really didn't want to miss school.  The only way I finally got her to stop crying was to put a story in the CD player and she eventually started listening to it.  Rebecca was crying, too, because she was missing her naptime.  Finally, once Rachel stopped crying, Rebecca stopped crying, too, and fell asleep in her car seat.  I felt like crying the whole time, completely frustrated by the situation.

So Rachel was home today, and it's felt like a snow day, since we're stuck at home.  Traffic is STILL completely backed up EVERYWHERE because those two major highways are still closed.  They may be closed through tomorrow morning's rush hour, too.  They cancelled afternoon kindergarten because of the hassle to get kids to school. 

We were supposed to have a play date this afternoon but had to cancel it because neither of us can get to the park where we're supposed to meet! 

Definitely feels like a snow day--sunshine, blue skies, and all.