Thursday, March 01, 2007

Rain, Ice, and snow....all in one day!

Last night after getting home a bit late from work, I relaxed a bit, checked my work email, and then I took the kids to Wendy's for dinner. We returned home and watched assorted TV (Scrubs mostly) until they had to head over to their Mom's at 8PM. This evening I will have them until 8:30, as their Mom is working a show in the city.

There was so much ice this AM, that to go the barely 150 feet from my garage to the first main road (I live in a large cul-de-sac) took me almost 10 minutes. As I let the Mustang idle out of the garage this AM it immediately jack-knifed, and from there things only got worse! I continued to try and straighten the car out which was now 180 degrees off the end of the driveway, I slowly made progress, inching my way forward and back, and the rear of the Mustang was finally facing the street.

I was being punished, it seems, by the powers that be, since when I went to garage the car last night it had gotten dark and instead of backing into it like I usually do when there is bad weather, I just pulled straight in. I paid the price this morning!

When I finally hit the street I slid again, and again, and again, and finally made it to the corner. This and subsequent roads were better treated but there were still plenty of icy spots. I took it carefully and slowly, and, was evidently too slow for some IDIOT who decided to pass me and then lost control of his car and did several 360's!! Lucky for him there was none else around and he totally missed me, though I nearly needed clean underwear! IDIOTS like this person are why we have so many accidents!

I only live 3.5 miles from work but it seemed the drive took forever. People working in my group were delayed and reported seeing cars rolled over on different stretches of highway! One of these rollovers was reported to me as being so serious that it would have been a miracle if the occupant(s) of the car survived!

When I get to work this time of year it is dark outside the large windows where I sit; I was quite surprised by thunder and lightning, we dropped power twice in five minutes. It's times like that I am glad the Data Centers I am responsible for are all well protected by UPS systems!

Lunchtime now and it is degree above freezing but, another cold snap approaches and it will soon cool down and more sleet and then snow will fall. I hear there is talk of closing all the area schools early just to get the kids bussed home safely.

Click HERE for a webcam shot near the lake shore that will certainly chill you to the bones, my friends! Beware!!! (Of course you can come back in the summer and click it and see a more tranquil, relaxing scene too!)

Below is the current picture as of noon today for posterity's sake. You may click it for a larger version in a new browser window if you like!


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