(no subject)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to duchess_of_hell, a day late!
elayna88 reminded me that I never posted about our furniture shopping expedition last weekend. Furniture shopping turned out to be the uneventful part of the day.
This all started a week ago Friday, April 28, when I announced to Matt that I hadn't yet driven my car on the expressway, and it was time to fix that. So we talked about where we could go the next day, and we finally decided to drive out to Good's Furniture. Good's is an amazing place--it's in a small town about 2.5 hours west of where we are, and it's an enormous store. They carry just about every brand of furniture you could think of. Their prices are terrific--about 40% lower than most stores--and they deliver to the Chicago area for a flat fee of $99 no matter how much you buy. We've already got a bunch of furniture there.
We had no intention of buying anything--it was just an excuse to drive--but we planned to look at furniture for the guest bedroom. What's in there right now is (a) a double bed frame and mattress that I bought when I got my first apartment in 1988, (b) a do-it-yourself nightstand of the same vintage, and (c) a dresser that came through Matt's family--I'm not sure who owned it, but it's from the 1950s, and it's in horrible shape. It's the one room in our house that's really pretty embarrassing, and we do plan on fixing that. Eventually.
Matt had some things to do Saturday morning, so we ended up not getting started until about 11. That turned out to be a fatal mistake. We were going to take I-355 south to I-80, then I-80 west to Kewanee. We got on 355 and got through the toll plaza south of 75th Street, and everything immediately came to a halt. Traffic was completely stopped. We turned the radio to a news station and discovered that a propane truck had overturned and caught fire just south of where we were, right at the next exit. They were closing the expressway and were forcing everyone to exit. And the thing is, we're talking seven lanes of toll plaza traffic all being routed onto one tiny exit ramp. It was a mess.
We did finally make it to the ramp, and when we got to the cross street, we discovered that they were evacuating the whole area. There were a bunch of strip malls right near there, and they were all empty. Even the IKEA parking lot was empty, which was pretty much unheard-of. The only traffic going toward the expressway was emergency vehicles. We could also see fire trucks that were hosing down the overturned propane truck--they were trying to keep as much distance as they could and still reach it.
It was only about two miles to the next road that connected to I-80, but it took forever, because just about everyone who was routed off 355 was going the same way. By the time we got onto I-80, we had been driving for about an hour and 20 minutes--and we had gone a whopping 12 miles. Luckily, after that things got back to normal, and we made it to the store with no trouble.
After all that mess it was pretty late when we got there, but we did have time to look around, and we found about five possible beds, which we're currently arguing about. By the time we drove home, everything was cleared up, and we found out that the propane tank didn't explode, although I can see why they were worried. That could have been really nasty.
The good news is, my car liked the expressway a lot. It got about 32 mpg, which isn't bad, and it's incredibly quiet. Matt drove it down to Springfield last week, too, so it's definitely been broken in.
This weekend has been reasonably quiet. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment, because my left ear is *still* clogged up. I'm hoping she can do something about that.
elayna88 reminded me that I never posted about our furniture shopping expedition last weekend. Furniture shopping turned out to be the uneventful part of the day.
This all started a week ago Friday, April 28, when I announced to Matt that I hadn't yet driven my car on the expressway, and it was time to fix that. So we talked about where we could go the next day, and we finally decided to drive out to Good's Furniture. Good's is an amazing place--it's in a small town about 2.5 hours west of where we are, and it's an enormous store. They carry just about every brand of furniture you could think of. Their prices are terrific--about 40% lower than most stores--and they deliver to the Chicago area for a flat fee of $99 no matter how much you buy. We've already got a bunch of furniture there.
We had no intention of buying anything--it was just an excuse to drive--but we planned to look at furniture for the guest bedroom. What's in there right now is (a) a double bed frame and mattress that I bought when I got my first apartment in 1988, (b) a do-it-yourself nightstand of the same vintage, and (c) a dresser that came through Matt's family--I'm not sure who owned it, but it's from the 1950s, and it's in horrible shape. It's the one room in our house that's really pretty embarrassing, and we do plan on fixing that. Eventually.
Matt had some things to do Saturday morning, so we ended up not getting started until about 11. That turned out to be a fatal mistake. We were going to take I-355 south to I-80, then I-80 west to Kewanee. We got on 355 and got through the toll plaza south of 75th Street, and everything immediately came to a halt. Traffic was completely stopped. We turned the radio to a news station and discovered that a propane truck had overturned and caught fire just south of where we were, right at the next exit. They were closing the expressway and were forcing everyone to exit. And the thing is, we're talking seven lanes of toll plaza traffic all being routed onto one tiny exit ramp. It was a mess.
We did finally make it to the ramp, and when we got to the cross street, we discovered that they were evacuating the whole area. There were a bunch of strip malls right near there, and they were all empty. Even the IKEA parking lot was empty, which was pretty much unheard-of. The only traffic going toward the expressway was emergency vehicles. We could also see fire trucks that were hosing down the overturned propane truck--they were trying to keep as much distance as they could and still reach it.
It was only about two miles to the next road that connected to I-80, but it took forever, because just about everyone who was routed off 355 was going the same way. By the time we got onto I-80, we had been driving for about an hour and 20 minutes--and we had gone a whopping 12 miles. Luckily, after that things got back to normal, and we made it to the store with no trouble.
After all that mess it was pretty late when we got there, but we did have time to look around, and we found about five possible beds, which we're currently arguing about. By the time we drove home, everything was cleared up, and we found out that the propane tank didn't explode, although I can see why they were worried. That could have been really nasty.
The good news is, my car liked the expressway a lot. It got about 32 mpg, which isn't bad, and it's incredibly quiet. Matt drove it down to Springfield last week, too, so it's definitely been broken in.
This weekend has been reasonably quiet. Tomorrow I have a doctor's appointment, because my left ear is *still* clogged up. I'm hoping she can do something about that.