Winter: An Analysis

Since Ms Sarah Palin was hired by Fox News--for probably a fair amount of money--to be a commentator and analyst, I figured, why not me? I think I will make some business cards that say Commentator/Analyst. And here is my first analysis:

Winter is very very very very cold sometimes.

This, my first full winter in North Carolina, feels biblical. I said that to my boss at the library and she said, so next you are expecting frogs raining down from the sky? Well, I have to say I wouldn't be surprised...though they would be flash frozen and that would hurt.

It started with a heavy wet snow that fell hard and fast, downing trees and powerlines which led to no power for many many many many many many hours. I believe somewhere in there, there were one or two days of moderate weather but it's a bit of a blur. Shortly thereafter, the deep freeze moved in and stayed and stayed and stayed. I am pretty good at wrapping up now. [Hot tip: I went to the fabric store and bought a half-yard of 60" wide deep purple embossed fleece, cut it in half lengthwise so I now have two 9" wide x 60" long mufflers--no sewing. I wrap one around and around and around and am very comfy in the whipping winds. It cost something like $3.69.] Yesterday it was 28 degrees and I thought there was hope. My hands were not frozen inside my mittens.

This morning, Baru Bear and I headed outside for our morning walk and it was, again, 28 degrees with a misty rainy snow like substance falling from the sky. By the time we hit the asphalt road at the bottom of mine, it was slippery. My neighbors came around the corner. I told them it was icy--something that might be more obvious in rubber-soled Merrills than in a Subaru Forester. Bear and I continued around to say good morning to the horses. It's not a bad place to walk because I can hear cars coming from either direction and we can get to the side that is wider in plenty of time. As a car came speeding down the hill, I said aloud, Careful...it's slippery, and the car hit the curve and started fishtailing, heading straight at the Large Hound and me. My heart was beating extremely hard. I pulled Bear in close and got as far out of the way as possible, not knowing which of the ways was out. I don't know if we were why she went into a 180 degree skid or if that was part of her efforts to slow down but thankfully she came to a stop across the road--where Bear and I would have been had we not run across the road. It was a heckuva way to start the day. My Introduction to Black Ice.

I went into the library a couple hours later. On the road in, which is a 45 MPH zone, even the usual cowboys were going under 25MPH. A relief to me. There were several cars in ditches along side the road. It wasn't pretty.

So we've had record snows, record winds, record power outages, record temperatures, and record broken pipes (in town--not at my house yet...so I guess I could expect that one day soon). Black Ice was ice-ing on the cake. I am not sure what else winter has to offer but heck, we still have over two months to go. Bring it on.