I survived the icy commute, and all I get is this lousy blog post?

Yesterday afternoon and evening we got a pretty hefty freezing rain and ice storm in the metro DC region—enough that it caused unbelievable traffic backlogs on some of the heaviest-travelled roads. Case in point, the complete deadlocking of the Springfield Interchange, which lasted well into the midnight hour. (Good thing I don't live in Alexandria anymore!)

I left work at 5:00 last night, and didn't encounter stopped traffic until about halfway down the GW Parkway, where I came upon two unexpected incidents back to back: first, a car was sitting askew on a very steep embankment, so I'm guessing it must have slid off the road and up the embankment; and second, another vehicle apparently blew a tire and fishtailed all the way around, essentially blocking one lane.

But the worst of it came at the exit for Route 27 off GW Parkway, where exiting traffic just came to a dead stop. From that point to Riverhouse, it's maybe a mile, tops. And on a normal day, it might take me all of three minutes to get from Point A to Point B. Last night, it took me 45 minutes! And the whole time, I don't think my speedometer broke the 5 mph mark until I turned off Columbia Pike onto Joyce Street. (I attribute the long delay to the backups in Springfield, and to the commuters trying to make their way over to southbound back roads like Walter Reed Drive.)

Overall, I didn't find the roads that bad. If anything, they were just wet, but then again, my PA roots have conditioned me well to driving in bad weather.

All the weather predictions for today were dire, suggesting that roads would be pretty bad and that up to an inch of ice could accumulate, despite treatment to the roads. I wrestled long and hard about whether to drive or take Metro this morning, and ultimately decided to brave the roads. I chose this option because I've learned the hard way about getting stuck in Bethesda when taking Metro—because if the Bethesda station or any of the Red Line stations have to close, I'm S.O.L. I realize that driving is more risky, but this way, I'm not dependent upon public transportation to get home.

This morning when I walked out to my car, I was surprised to find that only half the cars in the parking lot were covered with ice. Others were only covered with condensation that hadn't frozen. Mine was one of those (thankfully). And when I hit the roads and embarked on my journey to Bethesda, I again didn't find the roads that bad. I of course drove a little slower, just to err on the side of caution (as did many others on the road with me), and I arrived at work with little to no holdups—almost as if it were a normal day.

The irony of the situation, though, was when I sat down at my desk (at 8:00) and listened to the voice mail saying that, due to the inclement weather, our office would be opening at 10:00 . . .