Like a Proton

Enjoying a little science humor this morning.  It's a message I need after the past two days of afternoon pick up at the elementary school.  Maybe today I'll take a photo or two of the total chaos that happens in the front of the school with the traffic involved in the Kiss-n-Ride line. 

There are about 50-60 out of the 600 that attend son #2's school who get picked up by car each afternoon.  That means there's a line up of parents in cars that extends out the school driveway and down the road a ways while we all wait our turn to get in the K-n-R queue.  Unfortunately there are also cars parked along that same stretch of roadway so it results in a double parking and lane blocking situation beginning about 20 minutes before dismissal time.  Gridlock.  I pity those who come upon it unknowingly and are thwarted in getting where they want to go.  I'm dumbfounded as to why there are no police directing traffic with some kind of work around or why there hasn't been some modification of the road and/or process to make things smoother.  Surely I am not the first parent to notice how dangerous it is to sit in this line nearly being sideswiped by impatient drivers trying to pass by on the very narrow road.  Total. Safety. Hazard.

Yesterday a tour sized bus needed to get through and the driver was so frustrated that he laid on his horn.  Over and over.  For fifteen minutes.  Um,  ... loud.  And there wasn't a thing anybody could do about moving out of the way because we were all boxed in.

For me, this is a temporary problem.  Once son #2 can do stairs again he can take the bus home. But for now, I have to figure something out as to how I will deal with this hassle each afternoon for the next month or so.  Here's where the think like a proton comes in ... as bad as this traffic is, it's no where near the terrible traffic situation I experienced (and drove in) in Mongolia.  So, there's that.  Something to be grateful for, anyway.