My Morning Commute

Today we all three got ready for school and work without too much drama. Lou left early...like he always does, and Jackson and I were taking our time. I cannot drop him off at school until 7:40 so I am usually a little late to work on the days I have to take him. It's not usually a big deal, I'm only about 5-10 minutes late.

Well, I was getting my lunch together it was only about 7:25 and I realized that Lou took the wrong lunch. I still had my lunch to take, but with his sensitive stomach I really didn't want him to eat the food he took. So I hauled butt...grabbed Jackson, his backpack, my purse and lunch, Lou's RIGHT lunch and we were out the door. I thought I had plenty of time to run to Clovis High and drop off Lou's lunch in the office and bring Jackson back to school and still make it to work...fairly ontime.

I kept calling Lou on my way to Clovis High to let him know what I was doing, but no answer. He finally called me back and said he would go up to the office to grab his lunch. We didn't see him...we flew in and out of the office pretty fast. I got J back in the car and made my way thru all the mom's and dad's dropping kids off at school and managed to get back to Jackson's school about 7:50. His class doesn't start until 8:00 so he was fine. I didn't get a chance to walk him into the gate, but I think he liked that. I watched him walk on the sidewalk all by himself and there were already plenty of kids waiting outside the classroom for him to mingle with. He felt so big.

So now...me! Off to work. I knew I wasn't going to make it...not even by 8:10 so I called work and let them know I was running late. I'm so glad I did that. I did not know it yet, but I would not be getting to work for quite some time.

I thought for a minute about taking the freeway, but that was a bit out of my way, so I opted for good ol' Herndon. The speed limit is 50 and there are 6 lanes across (most of the time). I usually take Herndon and have absolutely no trouble at all...it has it's slow spots, but for the most part there is a consistant flow. I got to Chestnut and could see a lot of brake lights. I though tto myself, "I know it normally gets crowded around Cedar, but this doesn't seem normal." By Maple (one more street up) I had made my way to the Right turn lane with everyone else. Herndon was closed for some reason and they were forcing everone to turn off. Maple is not equipped for that kind of traffic and was an even bigger mess. I quickly turned Left onto a business street and made my way through office complexes up to the next street...Cedar.

They were not letting cars turn Left so I could not get back to Herndon. I could see caution tape and police baracades blocking the intersection. I saw the most horrible thing as I looked out to Herndon and Cedar...a motorcycle, and it's rider. He obviously didn't make it.

My heart felt so sad. At that moment I felt terrible for getting upset over all the traffic and how late it was making me. I made my way to work with the radio off...praying 1 for safety, 2 thanking Him, and 3 for that motorcycle rider's family. I found a short news article online...all it said was that a motorcycle rider was killed at Cedar and Herndon this morning.