Got up, drove the kids to school (which happens to be very close to work). The sky was overcast and there was a dusting of snow on the rooftops; nothing that would've even made me think to wonder if school was canceled today. It was. "There's a blizzard coming this afternoon, so they canceled school," the guy there told us.
So I drove the kids all the way back home, and then all the way back to work. (It's about 25 minutes each way, made more annoying by the fact that my work and the kids' school are nearly across the street from each other — so it didn't just feel like back-and-forth, it was.)
Got to work. A big software upgrade that I was working on has been put on hold, but I need to get some new features and bug fixes out soon, so I had to copy off and roll back my changes. Except I slipped and clicked the "check-in" button. Fortunately, it was after I made a list of all the files I would be copying, so I spent all morning going file by file rolling back changes where needed. (Some changes I wanted to keep anyway, since they were themselves bug fixes. As it is, I'm not sure my mistake really set me back much.)
In the process, the promised blizzard rolled in. Our office decided to close at noon and send everyone who could work from home, home. I'm fortunate that I can. But I had to finish my check-out, check-in undo thing, since I wouldn't have access to the network from home. Plus I had a support call that kept me tied up for part of the morning. So I didn't get out until 12:30 — which, all in all wasn't too bad.
Got outside and decided to put chains on my car. This turned out to be the smart move of the day. Although it meant I didn't get started until 1, I didn't slip or slide at all on the entire drive home in my lightweight hybrid. The same could not be said for the rear-wheel drive cars that ended up blocking traffic on the main road — two of which I ended up helping push out of the way. One of them was a rear-wheel drive SUV. I didn't even know those existed. I also saw a rear-wheel drive extended-cab pickup truck slide off to the side of the road at one point.
It took me an hour to go the two blocks from my office's parking lot to the main road (the two cars I helped push happened to be blocking my turn onto that main road, which I'm sure was part of the delay — although how long they were there and/or if they replaced other cars that were stuck there moments before, I couldn't say). It was very slow going down that road. (Interesting side note: normally three lanes, there were four lanes of traffic heading in my direction. Amazing what happens when no one can see the lines.)
I finally got home at 3:30, took about a half hour fighting with my laptop before I gave up connecting it to my wireless network and took it upstairs to plug it in to my office network hub, when my oldest son came up to tell me that his younger brother had thrown up on the couch. Since my wife and the toddler were down for a nap, I went downstairs and started cleaning.
However, except for one kid who's a little sick (no fever), everyone's home and safe. And for that, I thank The Lord for a good day.