The S Word Was Spoken

I didn't want to interrupt my saga about moving, so I'm posting this well after the fact, but I thought it was kind of amusing.

I was born and raised in Minnesota. I spent most of my life there. I've driven in snow since I was old enough to have a license. Hell, I drove in two feet of snow. I bitched about it, but I did it. And then I moved to Georgia.

After 6 years (SIX?!? OMG!) in Atlanta, I've started reacting like everyone else does here when I heard a forecast of snow. As I'm writing this, the National Weather Service has predicted snow for Friday night, maybe up to an inch. In Minnesota an inch of snow is called a nuisance. This is not the case down in Georgia.

Grocery shopping day is normally on Saturday morning. I'm now grocery shopping on Thursday just in case the snow starts earlier than expected on Friday. And yes, there's bread and milk on the list, but only because we needed bread and milk. :-) No eggs. This is actually not crazy. After Snowmageddeon when people were trapped in their cars for 24 hours or abandoned their cars on the freeway and walked off, I've erred on the side of caution. (BTW, I was not trapped in my car, but it did take my van pool 3.5 hours to get home, making it the longest snow-related commute I've ever experienced.)

I can already imagine the chaos at the grocery store, if not on Thursday when I'm planning to go, then definitely on Friday. Part of me is still sitting here mentally shaking my head over the thought of rearranging my whole schedule for one inch of snow. Let's pretend one inch of snow equals 12 inches of snow in Minnesota. You know what I would do if they predicted a foot of snow in Minneapolis? I'd buy gas, period. Not one other thing.

But I'm not in Minneapolis anymore. I'm buying the groceries.

Edited to add: We got 3/4 of an inch of snow overnight. You can still see the grass through the snow. The Minnesotan in me scoffed at this pitiful amount. The person who's seen how they drive in Atlanta is grateful this was a Saturday morning.

 

The Snowmageddon That Wasn't

The weather service predicted snow for Atlanta last Friday. I don't know if you all remember the last time it snowed in Georgia, but people were trapped on the roads for 24 hours and longer. It made the national news. I think it was December 2014.

I didn't have the problems getting home in the last snowfall, but it did take me 3.5 hours. That would be an hour longer than my worst ever snow commute in Minnesota. That includes snowfalls of two feet, not the meager 2.5 inches that fell in Atlanta, but as I'm continually reminded, the south isn't used to snow like the north is and doesn't have the equipment to remove it.

So with 2-4 inches of snow in the forecast for Friday into Saturday, I was naturally concerned. This is almost double what fell during Snowmageddon 2014.

It started raining early in the day right on schedule according the the weather people. The temperature hovered in the mid thirties. We watched and waited. And waited. And waited, but finally it was late enough to go to bed.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I expected to see a blanket of white covering the ground. I opened the blinds to brown. Brown leaves, brown grass, brown pine needles.

The snow forecast had apparently been changed to ice, although I missed that little announcement. There wasn't much ice either that I could see. That was a huge relief, but when I think of the time we spent getting ready and worrying about the weather, it's a little frustrating too. Still, I'll always take them being wrong this way than to have them be wrong the other way and have surprise snow.

Two Inches of Snow Freezes Atlanta

On Tuesday, Atlanta got snow. According to the news, about 2.5 inches. This was my first snowstorm since moving here and I'd been warned--repeatedly--that it would shut the city down. I wasn't able to comprehend that.

Up until recently, I lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Two inches would be called a nuisance snowfall and maybe slow the commute up some, but not much more than that. How bad could 2 inches of slushy snow be here?

I soon found out.

It began snowing before noon and people started leaving work. I ride a van pool, so we couldn't leave until everyone was allowed to go. That was at 2pm. By then, the two freeways we needed to take home were gridlocked with multiple reports of accidents. The primary backup route was also reported to be a parking lot, so we tried a different alternative.

It took forever to reach it because of the cars backed up and it didn't improve once we were on it. There was a guy walking on the sidewalk who kept up with us!

We inched along this two-lane road until we stopped moving completely. After some speculation that an accident had the road closed, we turned around and tried a different alternate.

This road also crept along at a snail's pace, and when we reached the start of a hill, the police were there, turning everyone around.

We headed for our third route. This one actually was moving and after 3.5 hours, I made it home, up the steep hill I call a driveway, and turned off the car. It was a huge relief, especially since I saw how icy the roads were already.

My parents were visiting and I was met at the door with the announcement that there was homemade chicken soup with homemade noodles. Definitely perfect after the hellish commute.

After dinner, I turned on the television and found there were people who were still stuck on the freeways for six hours! Six! Wednesday morning there were still cars stuck on the freeways around Atlanta and the temperatures weren't going to go above freezing for the day.

Reports from coworkers on their commutes started coming in. Some got home faster than my time, but one guy left at 12:30 in the afternoon and didn't get home until 2am. Another guy was stuck in traffic still at 9pm.

You can see pictures and tweets from people trapped on the freeways at The Daily Beast.

I can't wrap my mind around this set of circumstances. Two inches shutting down a major US city. I know Atlanta doesn't have the equipment down here. (I saw one snowplow in my 3.5 hours on the road and in Minneapolis, they're out on the freeways in force.) I saw how quickly the roads were icing up during my commute. But seriously, people stranded on the roads almost 24 hours later?

Totally incomprehensible to me. I guess you can take the girl out of Minnesota, but you can't take Minnesota out of the girl.

Are You Tough Enough?

The video below is the snow I'm having to deal with after more than 17" were dumped on the Twin Cities over the weekend. I know I got more than 17 inches at my house, but this is the number they're going with for official tallies. This makes it the 5th largest snow storm on record, BTW.

At first, I intended to narrate the video as I filmed, but decided all you'd hear is my teeth chattering if I tried to talk while I was outside. This morning, it was -13 degrees here and that's air temperature, not wind chill. The high this afternoon was something like 9 degrees. I'm already tired of being cold and dealing with snow and this stuff will probably be around until the end of March. ::whimper::

Is it any wonder all my computer wallpapers are pictures of tropical islands?

Are you tough enough? Minnesota snow:

The Friday Post

It is a raw, miserable day here. Yesterday, it was so windy that the snow was coming in sideways and this morning I saw my downspout for one of my gutters in my backyard, noticed the neighbors have a huge tree branch down, and the little snowflake on my wind spinner is all bent up. That was some storm!

Because it snowed and we were still getting freezing drizzle, I drove my dad to his doctor's appointment with the surgeon that will be removing his kidney. The doctor said that nine times out of ten, they remove the kidney arthroscopicly, but in my dad's case, they want to open him up to remove it. That means instead of an overnight stay, he'll be in the hospital for five or six days and restricted for about six weeks afterward on what he can do. Surgery is scheduled for a week and a half from now.

I have to say that my dad can be funny. We were supposed to get 2-4 inches of snow and he wonders if I"ll have trouble getting out with "all that snow." 1) I drive a SUV with 4-wheel drive and I've taken it to work in 18" of heavy March snow in the past. I don't think 2-4 is going to stop me. 2) For years now, he's said this every time any snow is in the forecast. There's also been times that he's told me to call him if I can't get out in the morning to call and he'll come over and snow blow. Um, see item 1 about the 4-wheel drive. The other thing he said yesterday was his car probably wouldn't make it out. How does 2-4 inches of snow translate into being snowbound? I haven't figured this one out yet.

Anyway, needless to say, I didn't have any trouble getting the SUV out of the driveway with the maybe 1 inch of snow that fell. (We ended up with more rain than they predicted.)

The other thing that's kind of funny is that I'd planned to take time off from work when he had surgery, but he's already made other arrangements. One of his lodge buddies is going to drive him and Mom to the hospital and I can come when I get off work. Oookay, Dad.

He's got a great attitude, though, and I think that's more than half the battle. And the even better news is that the doctor doesn't think Dad will need chemo. He's not 100% certain of that and won't be until the surgery, but it would be nice if my dad could miss that.

Keep sending positive vibes for a little while longer. Thanks!

Bugged?

It snowed again yesterday. :-( That meant my usual 25 minute commute expanded to an hour and a half. Make that a white-knuckled hour and a half. Top speed was about 30 miles an hour, but most of the drive was at 1o mph. That was a good thing because the roads were horrible. It's up early today and out the door ASAP because of the conditions.

The only thing that made the day bearable was arriving home and finding my coffee table and end tables on the door step! Yea! The problem was dragging snow covered boxes into the house. I'm hugely excited to have these tables and absolutely can't wait to fold up the step ladder (my makeshift coffee table) and put it away. I just have to get my dad to come over and assemble the new furniture. :-/

On the plant front, I talked here about the bugs in my amaryllis. The nursery suggested some stuff that mixes with water, goes into the soil, and kills them. I can't wait for that to arrive. They said the bugs are harmless, just a nuisance, but I don't like them in my house. I don't care if they are harmless. I'll also have to dose my bamboo plant with this stuff, I guess. The guy said that the bugs will make their way to other plants in the house and that's all I have.

Speaking of bugged, last night just before midnight, the phone rang. Wrong number. Not only was it a wrong number, it was someone's computer trying to connect to the internet. I've had calls like that on my voice mail when I've gotten home from work, but I never had a call in the middle of the night before. You'd think the fact that they've never connected dialing my number might encourage the person to delete it. Apparently not. Grrr.

It's Begun

And so my time in hell begins.


They're predicting 6-10 inches of the stuff. Notice how I censored my language?

At least I have my amaryllis.


More pictures tomorrow when my hell on earth (aka the storm) is finished.

Oscar Talk--Mostly

I watched the tail end of the Oscars last night. I didn't realize they were on. :-( Yes, apparently it is possible to miss all the hype if you're not paying attention and don't watch much television. In my defense, though, I thought the Academy Awards were always on in March. Am I remembering wrong?

I was getting impatient toward the end--it's like this epic performance that never ends. It was nearly 11pm and I was getting ready for bed, but since it was so close to the end, I wanted to see the award for best picture. Then I started thinking, you know, as bad as it is to watch these things at home, can you imagine sitting in the audience? I was in my jammies and sitting on the bed for the last 20 minutes, but can you imagine wearing a full-length evening gown, putting on makeup, doing your hair, wearing all that jewelry and being held prisoner in the auditorium for 4 1/2 hours? Gah!

Anyhow, The Departed won for Best Picture. I don't know anything about this movie, but I'm going to check it and the other finalists out and see if any of them are something I'd like to rent.

One of the coolest things was that screen where those tumblers or acrobats or whoever they were made silhouettes of movies. I only saw two because I came in so late, Snakes on a Plane and The Departed. As always, I thought the thank yous went on too long. I flipped away when that went on and watched snow coverage on the local news.

My favorite part of the awards is seeing all the actresses in their dresses. If I hadn't been busy writing all day (and if I'd realized the Oscars were on this weekend), I would have tuned in to watch one of the red carpet shows so I could see more of them than just what the presenters were wearing. If I finish writing early enough today (please God!), maybe I can watch the Fashion Police. Although, I must confess, they've raved about some dresses I thought were hideous.

Tomorrow it's back to the EDJ (Evil Day Job). And it's snowing--still or again, I'm not sure which. I had someone plow out my driveway for me, but my dad came over, wasn't happy with it and cleaned out the driveway some more. :-)

There isn't much else to say. I worked all day, but didn't get as much done as I'd hoped. That would be the sentence that sums up my 4 day weekend. :-( But from the beginning, I've fought for every word in this story.

Winter Lament

It snowed last night. It's still snowing. The winds are supposed to be in the 20-30 mph range. I hate Minnesota.

I think I'll leave it here, although I could go on much longer. I keep trying to tell myself to cheer up, that at least it isn't freezing rain. It's not working. With freezing rain, I'd just take vacation days from work until the roads were clear. With 5 inches of snow, I have to drive to the EDJ.

I saw who won the playoff games this weekend and I have to say, your odds were better if I didn't like your team. :-/ The AFC match up is between two teams that I hate, so it'll be a lesser of two evils thing, and out of the NFC, one team I wanted to see win actually did. New Orleans--and they almost didn't win from what I heard on the recap. Anyway, my relatives in Chicago will be appalled that I was rooting against their beloved Bears, but I was. :-) Instead of giving me grief about that, they should probably thank me.

Anyway, if you discount the snow, it was a pretty nice weekend. My chapter meeting was a lot of fun and I received my Rising Star Award. My hero finally revealed valuable background information about himself, something he had been keeping secret from me. I saw a cable modem in the paper and it listed my ISP as one of the valid activation partners to get the rebates! That was part of what had me dragging my feet, I didn't want to change email addresses, but I didn't think it would be one of the places I could activate at the store. It was nice to find out I was wrong. Of course, I still have to get myself to the store, get the modem, manage to hook it up myself--which I can probably do if the instructions are halfway decent--and hope my computer doesn't move so slowly, it goes backward in time. I really need a new desktop unit.

I have to get going early today. Extra drive time in and all that. Sigh.