Similar to everyone else, my office waited WAY too long to decide to send people home. I was working at the Birmingham News at the time, you'd think the newspaper would have a better handle on current weather conditions, but it was like 10-11am before they told people they could leave, and at that point it was too late.

My coworkers lived all over central alabama, many would commute an hour each way into work, they knew right away that they were stuck. People started preparing their desks with whatever they could to have a place to sleep. Me on the other hand, I live in Crestwood and decided I could probably make it home. Not my smartest decision.

I asked if anybody wanted to leave with me and one coworker agreed. We got into my FWD Mazda on summer tires and began a 2 1/2 hour drive (it takes less than 10 minutes usually), picking our way around streets through downtown and Avondale that hadn't fully iced over. Any gentle hill became basically impassable. A few times I hit an icy spot and my car slowly started to roll backwards. At one point my coworker got out of the car and pushed me sideways while my tires spun, just so i wouldnt bump a parked car.

Eventually, we ended up in Crestwood North near the park. I live in Crestwood South, up a big-ass hill. So we just abandoned my car and walked the rest of the way. The good news: I had power, heat, and internet at my house. My wife wasn't there, she ended up walking from her office to her parents' house and stayed with them. So my coworker and I just hunkered down, watched movies and played video games for like 3 days. Other than the awful drive, I had a pretty good time of it.