Quite the Morning

Today started out just like any other Monday normally does. For most people it is the start of the week but for us in college athletics it is just the continuation of one really long week that seems like it starts in August and ends in June.

However, this Monday I was excited. In relation to last week's blog today was the day to get rid of my cable. The Broncos lost on Saturday, well lost puts it lightly, more like got Tom Brady and Gronkowski laid for the next week with some Boston jersey chasers. After getting ready for work I packed up the cable box and never looked back as I headed off to work.

Here is where my day became a lot more interesting. First of all it was raining slightly but as I have learned in a few months, people in Austin drive crazy when it rains like people in North Carolina do when it lightly snows. There is something that makes these people think they will wreck with the tiniest bit of moisture on the ground. Right as I go to turn on I-35 (AKA the parking lot), of course there is a wreck being cleared on the on ramp. So even with an empty lane to go around this everyone slams on their breaks and fish tail around a little.

I luckily hit the eye of the storm in morning traffic so I thought and easily cruised at 45 mph past where I normally turn off for work. I decided to drop the cable box off first thing and be done with it. Now I knew where the place was at but Austin loves its frontage roads, one-way exits and streets and divided interstates so getting there was less than easy. For some reason the interstate splits into a high/low divided interstate with some exits off the high and some off the low. My experience with the frontage roads have made me learn to get off two exits early because they are one way and you end up circling around two or three times to try and get to the other side of the interstate.

Today it didn't matter I took the low I-35 and the exit I needed was still off the high one. I went down the frontage road and tried to do a u-turn but it was a one-way street so I couldn't even turn around. I was forced to get back on I-35 and go to the next exit about four miles away. This put me on the frontage road again and another mile or two down I finally got to u-turn. I got off on the 51st street exit and decided to take the frontage road to 41st where Time Warner's office is. However, the exit just went to 51st street and not to the frontage road. Thus I turned on 51st and then made a left on Airport to try and take that road. This took me right back to I-35 so I got back on hoping the next exit is what I needed. It was but that would have been on the lower I-35 and I was on the higher so I ended up going all the way back towards my work exit. I went to get off but construction cones blocked the exit so I had to go a couple of miles down to the next exit and take the frontage road past the capital into downtown, circle around and head back towards work.

It was smooth sailing from there to Time Warner but I was cursing the entire time, flipping off every building and street in Austin and yelling at a few idiots for driving stupid because they couldn't wait to talk to their BFF on their cell phone until five minutes later when they weren't driving. I pull in to the parking lot, grab the cable box, get out, walk to the door and there it is. A sign reading "We will be closed January 16 for Martin Luther King Day"

My reply, "F*cking F*ck, chicken beaters". Yes I need to work on my language but Austin has that effect on me. But c'mon really.

Well after that I just counted my losses and headed back to work. Of course one lane was closed going back for no apparenet reason other than some jackass decided to put 100 orange cones in the middle of one of the lanes. With it for sure being a day campus would be closed and nobody with a life would be working at least I could park in the upper administration's parking spaces. I went past the street where I usually park to go there but sure enough the road was closed and there were probably 5,000 people with banners and crap walking towards me in some stupid parade.

I am now in my office for what will be about 30 minutes before I give up on this day. No matter how much work I have to do it can wait because I am afraid of what will happen next if I don't go home.