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.