Snow Day - Part I

It began snowing at 5:45 this morning. I was supposed to go to my practicum in Milwaukie. I called one of my cooperating professionals who told me that if the ESD isn't closed, then home visits go as scheduled.

My original plan was to ride my bike to the Tualatin Park & Ride, take the express downtown, then a bus to Milwaukie. Total time, 1 hour. Due to the snow, I left the bike home and left the house at 5:53, hoping to catch one of four busses to get myself to Milwaukie.

The #76 bus, to Tualatin Park & Ride, was due at 6:08. It arrived at 6:15. I got to Tualatin Park & Ride in time to catch the #96 bus at 6:35. I arrived downtown a little before 7:00. I stopped at a deli to get a bottle of water, and got to the bus stop for the #33 at 7:05.

I had forgotten to bring my camera with me, so I was at the mercy of my cell phone for pictures. Sorry for the crappy resolution. This is what downtown Portland looked like at 7:05am.

The #33 showed up at 7:13. We made it to Milwaukie without much trouble. I hopped on the #29 bus to find out that the bus driver was unsure that we would be going anywhere. She had a call in to Tri-Met for information. They replied that because of the snow issues, it would be at least two hours before they could get out to her and get chains on her tires. She decided to risk it. We headed up Lake Rd. at 7:40.

I arrived at the Clackamas ESD office at 8:10. This is what the road up to the office looked like:

I waited for Chris, the PT I was scheduled to join for home visits. He arrived a little after 8:30 and told me that he was going to cancel his home visits. He did just that, then drove me down to the Milwaukie Transit Center, so that I could pick up the #33 back to downtown Portland. I was on the bus at 9:00.

I made a few vital mistakes:

I called Teatree. This kept me from thinking straight. Because I was on the phone, I didn't realize that I left my gloves on the bus. Because I was on the phone, I didn't think "Hey, these buses don't have chains, I should hop on the MAX." Because I was on the phone, I got on the #12 bus to Tigard.

The #12 bus got me about 1/4 mile down the road before it hit a street lamp and a pole. It took 20 minutes to get that far. After demolishing the street lamp, and sliding to a stop against the pole, the bus driver said "You're all on your own!" and kicked us off the bus. I have a sneaking suspicion he drove us into the pole on purpose. This is our bus. The item the person on the left is stepping over is the street light. In the foreground, you can see the glass bulb that was once part of said street light:

Instead of heading north to the MAX line, I thought I could pick up another #12 farther south. That was totally stupid. I wasn't on the phone anymore, so I can't blame that for my poor decision. I can only blame my ambivolence to carbon blazing as the reason. I headed the way the bus was headed...

I crossed highway 26. This is what it looked like:

I wandered down some roads, passing numerous busses, each with their hazard lights flashing. One bus was crushing a Cadillac. I thougt to myself "I should have parked Grey Eagle downtown last night! Tri-Met could be buying me a new car right now!"

I continued up the road and looked behind me. I laughed at the stranded busses:

I called Tri-Met to see if the MAX was running. The number was busy. I called Navigator to have him check their website. He told me to call back in 10 minutes. I asked a bus driver standing on the side of the road if MAX was running. She said it was. I decided to head to MAX.

However, when I got to 5th, I saw a #44 bus. The #44 bus goes to Barbur Transit Center. That's halfway to my house. Once again, I made a poor decision. I walked down the street to find a bus stop.

While crossing a street, I slipped and fell. A woman helped me up. We got to talking and found out we were both headed to Tigard. Together, we hailed a cab. The cabbie asked where we were going. We replied "Tigard." He said "No FUCKING way," rolled up his window and left us. A #44 passed us. We tried to hail the bus. The bus driver ignored us. A second #44 came by immediately after the first. We hailed that one. It stopped. I hopped on the bus and reached into my pocket to grab my phone to call Navigator. It wasn't there. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!! My phone fell out of my pocket when I fell. I had to get off the bus.

I had to retrace my steps.

I had to carbon blaze.

I didn't even know if my phone would be there.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!

As I approached the spot where I fell, I saw my phone poking out of the snow. Thank God! I grabbed it and saw that I had a new voice mail. It was Navigator. I called him back. He looked online for me and told me that MAX was running, as well as the #76. I decided to walk to MAX, take that to Beaverton, then pick up the #76. I headed back towards downtown.

In the meantime, I talked to my friend Jennifer and killed the battery on my phone. No more pictures.

I got to the PSU campus and picked up the streetcar, then took that to the MAX. It was 11:00 when I got on MAX - nearly lunch time! I was getting hungry & I had to pee.

I arrived at the Beaverton Transit Center at 11:25, wishing I had taken MAX the entire time. Why was I so stupid to try to take the bus, when the train is the only reliable thing in this town when it snows? Whatever, I had a bus to catch, and it looked like all the busses in the 'burbs were chained up. That was good news.

I waited....

........and waited........

.................and waited..................

......................and waited...............

The #76 showed up at 12:15. The bus driver was neither friendly nor apologetic. In fact, when she arrived, she said, rather abruptly "No one is to get on this bus until I get back!" and before you could say "I'm freezing my ass off!" she was off the bus, doors locked and trotting across the transit center like there wasn't any rush to get anywhere.

MOTHERFUCKER

Suddenly, I couldn't feel my feet. I could feel my core body temperature dropping. I was getting hypothermic. I just wanted to lie down and go to sleep.

OK, so I was being a little overly dramatic at that point, but I had been dealing with Tri-Met for six hours, AND it was past lunch time! Did I mention that I had to pee?

At 12:30, the bus driver returned. TWELVE FUCKING THIRTY! What was she doing for 15 minutes? No pee takes that long. She opened the door without an apology, then demanded to see everyone's fare. Fares are only valid for two hours. At this rate, your fare expired while you were on the bus. Thank goodness I have a pass.

My toes regained their feeling about five minutes before my stop. I sloshed through the snow in my crappy sneakers (because I seem to have lost my hiking shoes) and walked in my front door at 1:45. I immediately took off my shoes, socks & pants, turned on the heat and stuck my feet on the register. They screamed in pain. My toes were blue. I thought I was going to lose them. I wasn't being dramatic. They really were blue.

I cried.

Once I was relatively warm, I realized that my feet were slightly discolored by some old watercolor paint that had dropped on my crappy shoes one day when I was working. It stained my feet when my shoes got wet.

I called Navigator & made lunch. I recharged my phone. I began feeling normal again.

.....to be continued....