Echoes of '78

It's going to have to continue much longer for there to be any comparison, but I have to tell you getting home last night from TEMPEST rehearsals was just stupid. For me it was a test of my East Side geography, and I passed the test. Every time I encoutnered some kind of log-jam, I would take a detour, each one more successful than the last.

Carnegie was backed up to East 55th, so I ducked onto Euclid. I could see that my normal routes, up MLK to Cedar Hill, or up Little Italy, were entirely backed up, and would remain so. I wasn't going home until a little after seven (they called rehearsal early because of the stuff) and yet I imagined poor homegoers, locked in on Mayfield at the top of the hill, sitting there for hours.

I kept heading down Euclid into East Cleveland (it all opened up once I got past Case) and took Forest Hills. Meanwhile, my wife had gotten rear-ended after pulling off the road to scrape accumulating ice off the windshield. The force knocked her down, and she took the wiper with her. Luckily she was unharmed - and so were the kids, inside the car. I got all this news from my cellphone, inside my car, trying to get home.

Everyone is trying to take it easy today. Schools are closed, my office is closed, I was told not to attend afternoon rehearsal, but I will be going out in it tonight. Hope the roads are clear.