Hrmph. :rolleyes:
You’ve all heard about some of the weather up here the past day or so. Hell, particlewill, I’m sure you’re in the middle of it with me. You can vouch. . .
Every Thursday morning we have Ops Flight PT. It’s a mandatory thing now (policy came out two weeks ago), and being that I’m covering for a guy who’s deployed who’s in Ops Flight, I try to go. Even when I wasn’t covering for him, I went, because it’s a good workout program they have. In any case, it’s Thursday, and I gotta go.
It’s been snowing all of last afternoon, and all through the night. I go to bed knowing this. Dutifully, I set my alarm clock for 5:AM so I have plenty of time to either get up and shower, or roll over and hit snooze for the next 35 minutes. I also remind myself that a phone call should be coming if there’s any change in reporting to work times. God Bless the phone tree.
5:AM - ‘Aw crap. Screw this. I’m snoozin.’
5:09 - See above.
5:18 - See above.
5:25 - Phone rings. Two rings. Apparently my roommate gets it. He works in a different squadron than I, so I figure he’ll get up and let me know that there’s a delay this morning.
5:27 - Alarm goes off again. ‘Damn. I guess there isn’t a delay. . .’
5:28 - I roll out of bed, and check the caller ID: “Minot Trinity Hospital 555-1212”. Apparently it was for my other roommate (we share a house. I live in the basement, aka “The Troll Hole”) who’s a nurse at this hospital. Damn. Gotta get to work. . . Into the shower I go.
5:35 - I hop out, clean and shaven. I call our ‘snow line’ for a traffic/reporting time update. Line’s busy, so I can’t confirm any change. Gotta get to work. . .
5:40 - I start packing gym clothes and work clothes for the day. I plan on leaving around 6:15, just to make sure I get there in time and have plenty of stretch/warmup time. I try the ‘snow line’ again - still busy.
5:42 - Get outside (whoa! windy!!) and start the truck. One more fruitless call to the ‘snow line’.
5:43 - 6:00AM - Packing, waiting, sipping coffee. . . Two more unsuccessfull calls to the ‘snow line’.
6:01 - 6:11 - I head back outside for a fun time of scraping, chipping, knocking, throwing, clearing, and otherwise removing snow from my vehicle so’s I can drive. I also load up my stuff for the day into the back seat, and clamber into my truck.
6:12 - I back out of my driveway, and head off. “Man, it’s slicker than Herb Alpert out here. . .” Thank God for 4X4 High.
6:13 - 7:02 - I have just spent the most harrowing 50 minutes on the longest 13 miles of road in my life. Highway 83 runs North-South, and it’s the only road to base. The wind is coming from ENE, sustained at 36 and gusting to 42 (according to the radio). I count 14 cars off the ditch - no signs of life (someone must have picked them up already). I’d stop if there were immediate signs, but “Keptin, ourrrr scannerrrsss arrren’t worrrkin’. We neeeed morrre powwwrrrr!”
7:03 - 7:10 - I finally get to the base gate, and plow through what I can to get to the gym. The place is a ghost town. There are three cars in the parking lot, and two of them are sideways. :eek: I dutifully march into the gym through gale force winds, toting all my stuff with me. I make it inside and again, ghost town. Tumbleweed rolls through the weight room.
7:11 - 7:25 - I do what meager workout I can, get back to the locker room, and head out to work. I get here, and again, the theme song from “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” plays in my head. Dust whips through the office past a few cactuses and a passed out drunk on the side of the road. A woman rushes her child off the main street, past the hardware store and our printer cubicle. My spurs jingle-jangle as I make my way to the coffee machine, my six-iron closeby on my hip. . .
7:30 - I look up our base traffic/road condition website. Holy crap! I finally get word that reporting time isn’t until 10:AM. “You should’ve called the ‘snow line’!” Yeah, I tried that already. . .
Man, this place is dead. I should’ve listened to my common sense and waited a while. At least I could’ve slept in . . . :rolleyes:
Tripler
And it’s 8:15AM, and I have nothing to do.
