After unseasonably warm temperatures the weather service stated that a major cool down was headed our way and the smart citizens of my fair city sprang into action. Milk and bread evaporated from store shelves, people hit the liquor stores hard and fast because you know, you want to enjoy a cocktail when you're socked in, and many companies sent their employees home early as the temperatures began to plummet.
I was a bit of a skeptic because I've seen the city freak out over supposed storms only to witness a non-event time and time again. Since it had been so warm around here I figured that even if it snowed 10 feet, weeks on end with temperatures in the upper 60s would have the ground so warm, any frozen stuff would melt right away. I went to bed listening to gusty winds and clear streets and woke up to many broken tree limbs littering my lawn and a quarter inch of ice everywhere. The weather event actually happened!
I figured that even though the ice appeared, the warm ground would clear things up in no time but I was wrong. Day one turned into day two and day two turned into day three. I was trapped in my own home and by day three, I was getting a major case of cabin fever. But I didn't have it as bad as bad as some people around here. Motorists and truckers were stuck at a standstill for days because the roads were impassable. I mean, they were literally stuck in their vehicles which were stuck in a long, long line of trucks and cars on the highway and they weren't moving at all. Even though the department of transportation tried to prepare for the weather by sanding the roads, they couldn't keep up with the amount of ice falling. This resulted in frozen roads with lumpy ice that would kill the undercarriage of any car. It was bad!
About a week after the storm blew in I decided to tackle the cleanup of all of the limbs that had broken off of my trees. Since I'm crippled for the most part I was having a hard time figuring out how I was going to chop up branches that were as big around as my thigh but I have wonderful friends and one in particular, Amazing Anita, insisted that her and her man were going to do the heavy work for me. That girl dogged me for days before I relented and accepted her offer of help. When Manchild found out the plan, I think he was threatened by the fact other people would be helping me (when he should have been), and he stepped up to the plate to do the work. He cut the wood and I hauled it. Bad plan. Baaaaadddd plan. My poor little body rebelled and I was laid up for days afterwards but the big stuff was out of the way. I still have lots of little stuff littering my yard and about 10,000 cubic feet of leaves to rake but at least the sidewalk is passable. Maybe I'll get lucky and a typhoon will blow in and blast those leaves away. It is Texas and we do have crazy weather here. Anything is possible.
The ice in my yard lasted for almost a week and I was plenty happy to see it go. Snow I can handle, but ice is a real pain in the ass, let me tell ya. The motorists are long gone, the stores are restocked and life is back to normal. We're in the clear for at least another few weeks if all goes well.
(Since the writing of this post, an arctic blast blew in and we're having temperatures in the teens but at least there isn't any ice.)
Ice is a real pain in the ice. It's been 60 degrees here for a few days and there's STILL ice all over the side roads. What the hell, Colorado?
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