January 22, 2013
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A snow tale
Today turned out to be not so interesting, so I think I will share the misadventures of me.
Friday night is my usual orchestra time, and since I had missed the previous weeks practice due to not feeling great, I felt it imperative to get to rehearsal and practice with the orchestra. This is just a rough time of year, so in as much as I can make it, I really need to go. However, with nasty blowing snow, I wasn’t sure if it was the wasn’t choice. Traveling by public transportation means that I put a lot of trust that the trains and buses will be running as they say they will. This being the case, I bundled up and headed to the train station. The train, of course, was late. I heard the “we are really sorry the train will be late” message more than I wanted and nearly turned back at that point. I am a glutton for punishment because, I waited for the late train instead of returning to my significantly warmer house.
Once the train arrived, I did make it all the way to my destination. The blowing snow that collected on the outside of the train was a little worrisome because it means the wind is pretty strong, yet the train traveled on without incident. Trains do occasionally stop due to winds, and I prayed that would not be the case Friday night. Having arrived late, I missed my connecting bus. Rest assured that I knew of several other buses that would get me close to where I was going.
Here is where I would like to interject a very important lesson I learned that night. If you have to choose between getting on the outer loop bus that is there and getting close to your stop in triple the amount of time, or waiting until the next inner loop bus that will drop you where you need to be and in less time; then absolutely it is worth waiting in the old and blowing snow for the next bus.
Ok, so lesson learned. The outer loop bus dropped at the stop that I planned on, but when it dropped me in front of a wall of snow, I felt a little disoriented. I had never needed to use that stop before, so I wasn’t exactly sure where I was going. It was dark outside being that it was then 7:30 at night, and of course it was still blowing snow making general overall visibility more difficult. I find an opening in the wall of snow and managed to get myself onto a sidewalk rather than the street where I was dropped by the bus. I should tell you that while walking on the sidewalk there was a wall of snow taller than me on my right and on my left. Seeing over them to get my bearings straight was not really an option. I did look at the schedule to see when the next bus would go by just in case I needed to get on it and head home. Other than that I just started walking.
That night, because I was not going to be doing a lot of walking (so I thought), and because my snow boots were wet from shoveling some snow and slush on our street the day before, I opted to wear my everyday shoes. Unfortunately, my everyday shoes have holes in the sole of them. I know, I know, I should go get new shoes, huh? Or maybe a pair of waterproof snow boots? Although I was walking on the sidewalk, it was a snow side walk rather than concrete. Yep, you guessed it, I was collecting snow in my shoes.
I did find the orchestra rehearsal location. The website says that the walk from the bus stop to the building would take 3 minutes. I managed to do it in just under 20 minutes. :0 I arrived plenty cold, plenty late, and plenty snowy. My shoes, well, the snow in them, I just couldn’t managed to get it out of my sole before I entered the building. I felt terrible that my shoes were dripping water as the snow in the sole of my shoes melted. I was really wishing at that exact moment that the building I was in required us to take our shoes off, but it doesn’t.
Now I will say this. It felt so good to be practicing with the orchestra that night. I was glad to be playing. Turns out a third person has been coming to play viola with us. I am not sure if he will be there every week, but it was great to have a stand partner! For a change there were as many violas as any other instrument that night. Way to go violas!
Coming home from orchestra is a bit of a question every week. Sometimes a bassist can bring me home, but he told me had a meeting and couldn’t get me home. Sometimes one of two ladies gets me as far as back to the train station. By 9:30 at night no more buses stop in that area, so I never have a way to get anywhere unless someone helps me. Someone always does. One of the ladies got me back to the train station. Thankfully the train I was taking started from that station, so it was there waiting for me when I got there. This also meant it would leave on time! I was grateful for that. As we traveled back towards my house, the snow continued to blow, but this time the snow was blowing through the not so airtight window and landing on the seat of the lady sitting across from me. I could also hear the snow scraping / crunching along the outside of the train as it traveled along the rails. It wasn’t must fun trip, but again I did make it to my tiny little country stop without incident. I was very grateful to be home. Thankful to be able to jump into my warm bed and and warm my feet on the hot water bottle.
So ends my snow tale.
