Gridlock

Hello everyone, this is Morry.

This morning I woke up and started the shower. As the shower was warming up, Evan came in the bathroom. He looked very out-of-it so I imagine he just woke up. He stayed in the bathroom while I got showered and dressed. We then went downstairs and got breakfast for him. We brought it upstairs and I got him settled on the couch. Most mornings when this happens, he runs over to the window when he hears the garage open and he waves goodbye to me. He will continue to wave until I completely drive off. But as I was getting him settled this morning, he informed me that he wasn't going to wave to me today because he wanted to stay where he was. I admit, I was disappointed.

Both boys have runny noses so Rachel stayed home with them today. They didn't really go anywhere. The boys went down for a nap around 1:30 or so and both boys napped which was good.

At 4:30, I heard that there was a SWAT standoff and Mopac and the Greenbelt, which is really at Mopac and 360. Then they said they had shut down all lanes on Mopac between 290 and 360. There is probably not a worse spot on my drive home than that spot. All ways home that I could think of basically go through that spot. I left almost immediately hoping to beat traffic. What a joke that was. It seems everyone heard the news and everyone left at the same time. Mopac was just stopped. For those of you who know Austin, I got off at 35th Street, then I made a left on Exposition and went south on Exposition which dropped me off at Lake Austin Boulevard. I made a right onto Lake Austin with the intention of making a left onto Red Bud Trail - to get over the river that way. It seems everyone else had that idea too. It took me forever to make that left. I finally got through that up to Westlake Boulevard which took me forever to turn on to. Then I got down to Bee Caves Road. It was here that I think I made the critical error. I could go right and take the long way home, but it's the one way to avoid Mopac. Or I could go left and head towards Mopac and then take the access road. I thought I could go that way and go onto Barton Skyway and take that to Lamar. It seemed like the first way was actually backed up so I chose heading towards Mopac. After awhile I was able to get on the access road and I made the left onto Barton Skyway only to discover that Barton Skyway was never completed between Lamar and Mopac. All it did was take me in a loop back to Mopac, but heading north!! I then got on to Mopac heading north with the intention of getting off at Cesar Chavez and then continuing east until S. Congress and then going that way. Again, everyone else had the same idea and it was just a parking lot. I finally gave up and went to Mangia's Pizza on Lake Austin Boulevard (where I had been about 30 minutes before) until they finally opened Mopac back up. I didn't get home until 7pm. It was a long day.

When I got home Rachel, Evan and Noah were sitting on the couch watching My Girl. They all looked very cute. They were so into it, neither boy got up to say hello which is pretty rare. I went and sat on the couch with them for a bit.

Both boys are in bed now. I hope Evan stays in bed. I told him that if we called Nolan or Quin they would tell him to stay in bed. We'll see if that works.

Until next time...