Long commute

It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to get from Bethesda to Silver Spring tonight.  A little bit of ice on the road and the whole world goes to hell.  What a doozy.  Ouch.

On the way home I talked with one of my buddies from college for about a half hour--he lives in Leesburg and was travelling at 1 MPH from Tysons, so at that rate he should be home the day after tomorrow.  We caught up, blathered on about our favorite team that we need to love but now are growing to NOT love...I related to him that when I was in Pittsburgh this weekend and the sportscasters were beside themselves about the Penguins' other superstar, Yevgeny Malkin, the couldn't help but get their digs in on the 'Skins as they reported the Zorn hiring.  Smirking, the one sportscaster asked rhetorically just what in blue blazing tarnation is going on down in Washington (old south/folksy American slang is purely license on my part - that's not Pittsburghese).  Once again, a laughingstock.  And not unearned, either.

I was pressed into service to help with some election volunteering at school, so I helped break down the bake sale (scoring some chocolate covered strawberries for the effort) and helped a blind woman vote--no I didn't press any buttons, just got her to the registration table and the election volunteers did the rest...While she got to the election site via Metro car(?) I realized that she couldn't get home, so my son and I dropped her off at her place (a block away, but may as well have been 10 miles in the rain, resultant thin sheet of ice and her inability to see).  When we dropped her off and I was helping her out of the car, the car started sliding down the slight  incline of her driveway, much to my alarm.  A small patch of non-slick concrete halted the slide as I was clambering around the car to control it, and all ended well.  Some good karma for the day.

And so ends the evening, after a decent hour and a a half on the trainer which included 2 15 minute intervals at threshold.  Note to self:  A Clockwork Orange is tough to watch while putting forth effort.  Next time, maybe a documentary, like Supersize Me or something.