Today was going to be the day. It would be the first day that I would get to the office. I was overdue. Unlike some, I had showered every day and shaved three times this week. I had even put on pants once or twice. I was not unprepared, to construct an awkward phrase. We received the e-mail this morning stating that the office would open at 10:30. This was an e-mail steeped in legalese. Coming in was optional. If you did come in, you should pay attention to your footing and look for ice. Parts of the parking lot would be blocked off that were too full of ice.
I didn't care. I was ready to take on the elements. Well, I was until I saw the 11 alive twitter feed. All I saw were major road closings and accidents. The I-285 Buford connector I use every morning just had opened. There were plenty of entrance/exit ramps that were not open. My car is a 2008 Scion. It's not made for the elements. I passed on coming in. Out of our team of four, one person came in, and he owns a Jeep plus he used to live in Colorado where they get hundreds of inches of snow a year.
I would complete that thought by saying that they would laugh at the weather that practically shut Atlanta down for three days. That's until I decided to take an innocent trip to Publix. We were not out of food. We were curious more than anything else, and what better remedy to the weather than buying the components of a few crock pot meals? We passed on walking and I decided to drive. The driveway was fine due to my excellent shoveling work. The street directly in front of our house was starting to show pavement. Directly to the right and left it still was an ice rink.
That's what the roads were like. Either ice rink or wet pavement. I gained as much momentum as I could on the pavement parts and held my foot off the gas for the ice rink. We slid a bit a couple of times but all in all it wasn't so bad.
The parking lot at the Publix was another ice rink. Neither my wife nor I own proper winter footwear, so our running/workout shoes would have to do. We braved it.
I thought the grocery store would be one of two ways. Either it would be teeming with people dying to get out of their homes or it would be barren. I mean barren in terms of customers and food. It was neither. I have to say it was like a Publix normally is on a Thursday morning. Nothing was out of stock that we wanted and it was a fairly pleasant experience.
The drive home was a breeze except for the other drivers. We had a left to take, but the 4 Runner in front of us going right went all the way to the left lane and did not move even when the light turned green. We found a crevice and made it through. As we got to our home street, a car was stuck in the ice and a truck was to its right. We had to take the long way back. Again we experienced the combination of Ice Road Atlanta and the sunny patches that were almost free of moisture. We made it home and I decided that I made the right decision.
Most of the schools are out for the week, which means they get another week off a few days after the Christmas holiday. Yeah, the kids are going to be so prepared to come back. I do not envy my friends and family who are teachers.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Coldlanta Day 2
I'm "stuck" at home for the third consecutive day. The snow started falling Sunday night around seven and since that time I have been inside the home with few exceptions.
I had trouble as many people do who aren't used to being at home all day. Work was tough to accomplish since we don't have access to our work hard drive at home. Getting organized to do personal things was a lost cause. I couldn't even get enough motivation to work on my stalled book project. So I exercised as I've done almost every day this year.
On Monday we tried sledding. The sled was an improvised recycling bin cover and the results weren't great. I tried again. This time I had an audience. Our neighbors across the street and next to them were outside. One neighbor shoveled her driveway while the other made calls on a Bluetooth. I made my first sledding attempt. It's hard to get any momentum despite our pretty steep hill. I tried once on my butt, once on my stomach and a final time on my butt. Yeah, it's not the same as being a kid. You have no fear and don't realize when you're tired.
I saw my neighbor and the shoveling and thought that my driveway could use a cleanup. We've been in our house almost one year and have not said hello to them. We joke that it's a commune because the driveway is filled with as many as four cars and there's often a car parked in the street. I walked over and introduced myself to the woman who opened the door. She was friendly and let me borrow the shovel.
I was loaded. I had a shovel, my jacket, and my iPod. The only issue with the iPod was that the cord got stuck on the shovel a couple of times when I switched from leading with my left to leading with my right. My next-door neighbor was in the midst of his own shoveling project when I started and at first it felt like a contest. He gave up after 30 minutes. I felt like I had barely started at that point. I went side to side but carved one line up the side for variety. It was freaking endless. I later told the wife that we needed to make more money to install heaters in the driveway for the one time in five years that we get this kind of snow. I took off my jacket. It wasn't that cold. At the time the trees were starting to drip which meant that it was above freezing. Shoveling wasn't too hard but a lot of spots had ice under the snow which was hard to remove.
I came inside after my labors and the wife gave me a cup of hot chocolate. We relaxed as I warmed up. Physical labor can be a nice distraction. I wouldn't say that I want to do it for a living, though.
I had trouble as many people do who aren't used to being at home all day. Work was tough to accomplish since we don't have access to our work hard drive at home. Getting organized to do personal things was a lost cause. I couldn't even get enough motivation to work on my stalled book project. So I exercised as I've done almost every day this year.
On Monday we tried sledding. The sled was an improvised recycling bin cover and the results weren't great. I tried again. This time I had an audience. Our neighbors across the street and next to them were outside. One neighbor shoveled her driveway while the other made calls on a Bluetooth. I made my first sledding attempt. It's hard to get any momentum despite our pretty steep hill. I tried once on my butt, once on my stomach and a final time on my butt. Yeah, it's not the same as being a kid. You have no fear and don't realize when you're tired.
I saw my neighbor and the shoveling and thought that my driveway could use a cleanup. We've been in our house almost one year and have not said hello to them. We joke that it's a commune because the driveway is filled with as many as four cars and there's often a car parked in the street. I walked over and introduced myself to the woman who opened the door. She was friendly and let me borrow the shovel.
I was loaded. I had a shovel, my jacket, and my iPod. The only issue with the iPod was that the cord got stuck on the shovel a couple of times when I switched from leading with my left to leading with my right. My next-door neighbor was in the midst of his own shoveling project when I started and at first it felt like a contest. He gave up after 30 minutes. I felt like I had barely started at that point. I went side to side but carved one line up the side for variety. It was freaking endless. I later told the wife that we needed to make more money to install heaters in the driveway for the one time in five years that we get this kind of snow. I took off my jacket. It wasn't that cold. At the time the trees were starting to drip which meant that it was above freezing. Shoveling wasn't too hard but a lot of spots had ice under the snow which was hard to remove.
I came inside after my labors and the wife gave me a cup of hot chocolate. We relaxed as I warmed up. Physical labor can be a nice distraction. I wouldn't say that I want to do it for a living, though.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Coldlanta
In Atlanta as in many cities not used to winter weather, there's a common joke about the day before a winter storm. "Stock up on milk and bread." The joke is that if you are stuck in your house for days, you're not going to want just milk and bread. The other joke is that Atlanta's usual storm is a snowfall so insignificant that more often than not it melts before it's over.
We just hit the exception. I first heard of this storm last Friday. In typical Atlantan fashion I assumed that the prophecies of doom were exaggerated. Yeah, we might get snow but it would melt the next day. It's going to be too warm for it to stick. The sun will come out soon and we'll be back to our usual pristine Southern winter weather.
Was I wrong. We had the perfect storm, so to speak. It was very cold on Sunday, which meant that when the snow hit, it stuck immediately. Instead of the temperature bouncing above freezing on Monday, it never made it. What made this storm especially nasty was that yesterday we had freezing drizzle. Now the snow is like that magic shell dessert concoction. It's covered in a hard shell.
My office tried to be tough and at first proclaimed a delayed opening for today. That changed to an absolute closing this morning. For once in my Atlanta history, it is possible for us to run out of food. OK, that's rubbish. We have provisions in our cabinets and fridge for at least a week, or one good football game.
When I moved to Nashville at age six, we lived on a giant hill. It snowed a little more than in Atlanta, so when it did our yard was party central for the neighborhood. We actually had a double-dip hill and that's where we spent our rare snow days. In our new house here in Coldlanta we have a hilly driveway. Later in the day after getting bored with Wii Fit I decided to give it a shot. Using the top of the blue DeKalb County recycling bin, I sat down and slid down the hill. It was the slowest sled ride ever. The wife videoed the experience, like every other person in Atlanta did yesterday. It was, shall we say, less than compelling. At least I got to come in, remove my winter clothing, and have some hot chocolate.
If worst comes to worst, we can walk to Publix. Half a mile. In the snow. Uphill both ways.
We just hit the exception. I first heard of this storm last Friday. In typical Atlantan fashion I assumed that the prophecies of doom were exaggerated. Yeah, we might get snow but it would melt the next day. It's going to be too warm for it to stick. The sun will come out soon and we'll be back to our usual pristine Southern winter weather.
Was I wrong. We had the perfect storm, so to speak. It was very cold on Sunday, which meant that when the snow hit, it stuck immediately. Instead of the temperature bouncing above freezing on Monday, it never made it. What made this storm especially nasty was that yesterday we had freezing drizzle. Now the snow is like that magic shell dessert concoction. It's covered in a hard shell.
My office tried to be tough and at first proclaimed a delayed opening for today. That changed to an absolute closing this morning. For once in my Atlanta history, it is possible for us to run out of food. OK, that's rubbish. We have provisions in our cabinets and fridge for at least a week, or one good football game.
When I moved to Nashville at age six, we lived on a giant hill. It snowed a little more than in Atlanta, so when it did our yard was party central for the neighborhood. We actually had a double-dip hill and that's where we spent our rare snow days. In our new house here in Coldlanta we have a hilly driveway. Later in the day after getting bored with Wii Fit I decided to give it a shot. Using the top of the blue DeKalb County recycling bin, I sat down and slid down the hill. It was the slowest sled ride ever. The wife videoed the experience, like every other person in Atlanta did yesterday. It was, shall we say, less than compelling. At least I got to come in, remove my winter clothing, and have some hot chocolate.
If worst comes to worst, we can walk to Publix. Half a mile. In the snow. Uphill both ways.
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