Sunday Morning Quarterbacking

Did you remember to set your clocks back an hour last night? If you're like me you'll still be discovering un-reset clocks for the next couple of days (How DO you reset the clock in the car radio? Where did I put that owner's manual? And the VCR??? Fuhgeddaboutit.)

Okay, the lunch with the 'Rents went off without a hitch. I guess we were all on our best behaviors for the occasion. Nobody said anything that they regretted saying later, or wished they hadn't said at all. Or, at least, I didn't.

I even passed out on the couch in the living room after lunch for an hour or so. Dad woke me at 4:30 p.m., in time for me to hit the road to Warrington, Pennsylvania, where I had a serious engagement starting at 7:30. Three hours to travel about a hundred miles. No sweat.

I got on Route 1 north in Delaware to I-495 around Wilmington to I-95 north at the Pennsylvania border. A few miles later a switch to I-496, to bypasse central Philadelphia and to pick up the PA Turnpike at Plymouth Meeting.

There was only one little glitch. I got momentarily confused and prematurely exited I-496 onto I-76 South.

I was suddenly stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, at 30 miles per hour, on the most notorious roadway in the mid-Atlantic... the Schuykill Expressway aka The SureKill Crawlway, heading into Central City Philadelphia at a snails pace.

When I realized what I had done I nearly broke down in tears. There was no way I could be late for the event in NE Philly. Hell, I was hosting the evening and had even shanghaied somebody from New York into coming down for the night to be our "special guest speaker."

I kept looking for familiar landmarks, to no avail. Eventually, I saw the Art Museum (the Rocky Balboa one) across the river, and the top of 30th Street (Penn) Station in the distance and I knew that there was a left-side exit coming up that would take me over the river to the east side of town, past Independence Hall on Market Street, to I-95 northbound (again).

Long story short (yeah, yeah, "too late"), I whizzed across Philadelphia in about 3 minutes, picked up I-95 north and 20 minutes later I was exiting Route 1 onto the PA Turnpike westbound, heading towards the Willow Grove/Doylestown exit.

I made it with time to spare.

And then I realized that I'd forgotten the key to the Unitarian Church where this event was happening.

CRAP.

Fortunately a friend lives nearby who happens to have an extra key.

The place got opened. The guest from New York duly arrived and performed as expected and all was right with the world.

Sometimes, when life gets a little too exciting, I really wish I'd spent the day in bed.

p.s. I went to see "Marie Antoinette" today. Save yer dough.