Hey, It Snowed!

I watched the temperature drop on my home weather station from 58° to 25° on Monday.  By Tuesday morning I awakened to a reading of 19° and a winter storm advisory in my area that began at noon.

As I drove into work, the main thoroughfares had already had an anti-icing agent applied to them.  I even encountered some city vehicles that were still in the process of spreading the agent.

I arrived at work and parked my car in the business valet deck.  I knew when I got off that I would not have to scrape the snow and ice off my windshields if I parked there.

I kept an eye on the weather and noticed that the snow started falling around 3 o’clock.  It didn’t let up the whole afternoon.  By the time I got off at 8:30 PM everything was covered with snow. 

I took the shuttle bus to the parking deck.  I paid the attendant and climbed in my car.  I had my gloves on because the steering wheel was very cold.  I cranked up the heater and took off. 

The wind was blowing fairly hard and my greatest fear was having the force of the gusts push my car in a direction I didn’t want to go.

I was extremely fortunate that the roadways were largely empty.  I’ve got Michelin Defender tires on my car and believe me I was glad of that.  The cars that I encountered on my way home were pensively making their way down the highway.

I didn’t have any problems getting home until I decided to pull into a gas station to fill up with gas.  (I learned a long time ago that you never head out in wintery weather without a full tank of gas.)  When I had to make a sharp turn into the station, my car slid just a touch.

I did get a scare coming down my street however.  There were about seven kids playing in a front yard several homes up from mine.  Maybe they were tossing a ball or something.  Anyway, one kid ran into the road.  It was dark and only the grace of God kept that young man from becoming a smear on the road.  Again, I have those wonderful tires to thank and, of course, the good Lord.

I got home and switched the thermostat from energy savings to automatic, fixed a mug of hot chocolate and sat down to unjangle my nerves.  Shortly afterward, I brushed my teeth and put on some fleece jammies and went to sleep.  And hell no, I didn’t watch The World’s Most Dangerous Community Organizer stand up and lie to the nation.

I watched “Frazier” and “The Golden Girls” on the Hallmark Channel.  I needed something light-hearted to watch to settle my nerves.  I had a fairly good night’s sleep and woke up to see for myself in the light of day a beautiful covering of snow outside.

I love snow.  We don’t get much around these parts and my little furkid loves her some snow too.  I put on some ski bibs, some earmuffs, a knit cap and mittens and decided to let little Sophie go out to run in the snow.

She ran and ran and ran.  She did figure-eights and zig-zags.  She would run up to me and beg me to run with her.  That wasn’t happening.  It was waaaaay too early for that shit. 

After about 15 minutes, I called Sophie to come in the house.  It was time to fix some grits and eggs.  We needed something warm for our tummies.

Now, I have to face going into work on roads that are going to be more treacherous than they were last night.  That means I have to leave home at least an hour earlier than usual just to make sure I have enough time to deal with the idiots who can’t drive in this stuff.

Did I say I love snow?  Well, I do except when I have to go to work in it.

Ya’ll have a good day.  Be safe out there and stay warm.