Showing posts with label Texas in Winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas in Winter. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Life between the Ice Sheets

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Hey!  This is a service to my north Texas friends without windows who still have access to a computer.  First, DO NOT GO OUTSIDE!  It is colder than a witch's heart out there.  Ice is all over the ground. Again.  A light snow covers most of the ice.  The wind gusts over 25 mph and it could blow your Toyota Pious off the road and into a ditch. Then where would you be, eh? 

So, stay indoors.  Keep warm and wait for a better day.  I think Valentine's Day will be better than today.  I hope.

Hank
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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Goodgoshamighty!



It is colder ’n a well digger’s [bottom] in the Yukon! The temperature has struggled up to 25 from 9 or 10 early this morning. Judging by the television reports (and I have watched a LOT of TV this week) the entire planet is under an inch or two of ice, except for Egypt. In Egypt, they are having a rock fight in downtown Cairo. At least they are warm.

The ice came Monday night. I have been frozen in since then. If anyone finds this note, tell my friends and relatives I thought of them as I went stark raving.

Texans are world renowned for their driving skills on ice, and not in a good way. Dallas is home to half a million commuters and I bet there were 600,000 accidents on Monday. It has gotten better since then. I guess everyone either wised up and stayed home or is in the hospital recovering from multiple auto accidents.

Personally, I have only one complaint. Since the storm arrived around midnight, I missed my chance to go to the store and lay in a supply of cakes, pies, cookies and candies for the occasion. Now, the fact that everything in the house is “good for me” just adds to the cabin fever.

The local weather idiot promises a thaw for Saturday and Sunday. I hope he is right. I shudder to think about 100,000 anti-freeze filled souls jamming the icy roads to see the Super Bowl. The carnage would be awful.

Okay, after the snow we are supposed to get tonight melts and the snow we are supposed to get next week melts; I think everything will be okay after that.

See you in the spring!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Oasis!



Texas winters are more stressful than the evening weather reports suggest. They are not severe by most (any) standards. However, they do seem to drag on long after the novelty has worn off.

This year is no exception. The typical wintery day includes daylong gray skies. The wind blows from the north to add to our discomfort. Temperatures hover in the thirties at dawn and climb into the weak fifties in the afternoon. Occasional misty rain thickens the sense of gloom. It would lead one to believe the great outdoors had vanished, only to be replaced with a soggy, cold copy of Mordor.

The trees are in on it to. On a recent trip to the store for provisions, I noticed the line of trees standing along the roadside. Leafless, they appeared to be auditioning for a scary movie. Johnny Depp could play the lead…

So, when the sun burst upon a clear sky last Friday, it was Katy-bar-the-door to be the first one outdoors. I did not fully appreciate how haggard I had become over the weeks of gloom. A check in the mirror revealed a Sméagol Golem looking chap. Clearly, he was a tortured soul.

I was determined to rejoin the human race, at least while the sun shone and the air was warm. I called my daughter and we organized an afternoon in the park for four. My neighborhood park has dozens of playthings for swinging, climbing and running amok. My daughter and I joined in the g'children’s games, keeping watch in case they became stuck halfway up a tower or something. Later, we sat in the sun and chatted about our ordinary lives – still keeping watch over our charges.

It was the best day of 2011, so far.

Then Saturday showed up. It was yet another golden day. Warm air, sunny skies and light breezes, taken for granted by some, painted broad smiles on many faces, including mine.

Around noon, I collected my son's set of grandchildren and we were off once more. We hit the park, ate lunch at Mickey D's, played with trains, took a nap (my personal favorite) and still managed to return to their parents place just before bedtime.

I cannot recall a better night’s sleep.

Today is more of the same. Children and adults are outdoors reestablishing their grip on sanity even as I type. I would be out there, too, except I am trying to cut back.

Tomorrow, the forecast calls for the mild weather to end. We are looking at four or five days of colder, wetter weather. Again.

Nevertheless, I am extremely grateful for the three-day respite. The long journey through winter’s gloom passed through a great oasis, and just in time.