Auspicious Beginnings

Monday, I had my first accounting class. It’s an undergrad class, something to get me going in the right direction. I dunno, apparently the Dean of Accounting thought it would be a good idea to get some basic classes out of the way since I don’t have any actual accounting experience.

Thing is, I didn’t go to class on Monday. Not for lack of trying, though. My class was at 5:15. I left the house at 4:40, about ten minutes later than I intended. It had just started snowing and it was rush hour, so I knew it was going to be tight. At least, I thought I knew. Boy was I wrong!

Forging my way through the pile of snow already on my patio from a previous storm, I reached my car in the distant car port (assigned parking, not one space is near the unit it’s associated with) and piled in. The snow was coming down pretty good, but I wasn’t worried, it had been warm. The ground should still be okay. I pulled out of the parking lot, onto my side street, onto another side street, and left onto one of the major streets in the city.

For those of you who live in Cincinnati, you know it’s not flat. Well, in Colorado, there’s an awful lot of flat…further east. There are many places I can go without encountering a major hill, including to my classes at CTU. I turned onto this major road, Austin Bluffs, which does have a bit of a hill. Again, I didn’t really think the roads would be that bad, yet. Driving Austin Bluffs, you can go uphill both ways. I think I like it because it reminds me of home.

Half an hour later, I’d finally gotten to the next intersection, about a mile away. Austin Bluffs stretched before me, reaching for the sky, cresting at the UCCS campus and sharply turning down again to the next feeder road for I-25, Nevada. I know this route well. My first job here was in a building about a mile west of my new school. Because of that, I knew alternate routes, too. I knew that the last thing I wanted to do was attempt to climb Austin Bluffs. Even if I could get up to the top, I would still have to come back down.

Well, that became a non-issue. Sitting on the hill were several cars, taillights on, exhaust from the cars visible even a mile away. They weren’t moving. They couldn’t. They were stuck on the hill. They couldn’t go back because there were cars behind them. They couldn’t go forward because gravity and friction were working against them. So they sat. I didn’t realize until I was 15 minutes into my mile that those cars weren’t just moving slowly, they weren’t moving at all. At that point, I was ready to turn back home. There aren’t many side roads off Austin Bluffs, so I had to go on to the next intersection with everyone else. The direction I wanted to go was north, right. I was in the left lane, with no hope of getting over. So I had to press on. I reached another major street, Union, and turned left. I planned my route back home, I would get to the next major intersection – Union is also woefully short of side streets and turnaround opportunities – and turn left, then I’d be able to get back home. Alas, it was not meant to be. Again I was stuck on the wrong side of the street, this time the right. When I got to the next intersection, another major intersection, the light was out. Technically, when a light is out, the intersection is supposed to be treated as a four-way stop. Four streets with at least six lanes each, both with double left-turn lanes, my specific area with double right-turn lanes as well, full of rush-hour drivers panicking, desperate to get home, and not bothering about the rules. It was anarchy, every man for himself. The only reason I was able to get a right turn in at all was I was shielded by a car in the other right turn lane. No accident, miraculously, but I knew it was just a matter of time.
I knew I wanted to go home, then, even though I was now even closer to my college. The roads were only going to get worse. Not to mention my class had started 45 minutes ago, by the time I’d made that right turn. Another half an hour later, another mile later, I turned onto the I-25 feeder street, Nevada. Another fifteen minutes later, I worked my way to the left and made a U-turn. I was going home. Finally.
To avoid the chaotic intersection, I drove quite a bit farther south than I normally would. The roads were pretty much empty down there, apparently those people got out while the getting was good. Finally, two hours after I started, I pulled into my parking lot and my parking space. Home at last.
Since I didn’t make it to class, I reviewed the material based on the syllabus and felt pretty good about it. This accounting thing, I think it’s gonna work out.