"If you don't like the weather..."

It seems that no matter where one lives, long time residents will utter the phrase, "If you don't like the weather here in (insert name of town/state), just wait five minutes!" While I'm sure many places have their temperature swings or sudden change in weather, I'm willing to bet my lunch (which was leftover BBQ Shake and Bake pork chops...pretty tasty) that no where else can boast the polarity of Kentucky's weather the past couple of days.

Today is Tuesday, March 6. The forecasted high is 60 degrees. That should be warm enough to melt the THREE TO FOUR INCHES of snow that fell overnight Sunday/Monday morning. Almost every school in the area had a snow day Monday. This gave schools an even longer long weekend, as they also dismissed school 2 hours early on Friday, March 2 in anticipation of tornadoes.

The temperature on Friday? 70. How many places not only have enough of a temperature change to go from skirts to snow boots and back within 5 days, but also through in tornadoes, hail, and blizzards within that same time period?

This picture has been floating around on Facebook. Full disclosure: the first picture is not actually from March 2nd's tornado weather. The comments say it's actually Iowa, circa 2008. However, this picture:

(photo from Kim)

was taken about a mile from our house. We were incredibly blessed with the storms. We didn't have so much as one branch out of place. Communities not terribly far away have been wiped off the map. Of course, we are not the only state to be slammed with the tornadoes and I ask your prayers for those in Indiana, Tennessee, and Alabama in particular, as this is the second time in less than a year for many residents to lose everything.

If you don't like the weather in Kentucky, you better go somewhere else 'cause you'll get it all in a week.

Hopefully I'll get a post together about what's been going in the house. Not much, but a mini-project or two. That is, I'll get it together if I'm not in the hospital with pneumonia like the rest of the city!

Thinking Caribbean Thoughts

Do you remember that feeling when you were a kid and the weatherman predicted snow. You'd put a spoon under your pillow or sleep with your jammies inside out or any number of other wives tales to get a snow day. Growing up in Alabama, a prediction was all it took to close the state. Most of the time we'd get a dusting at best (which wasn't even stuck to the roads). But every once in a while, we'd get a really good snow. We'd get our makeshift sleds (garbage can lids, stiff cardboard, baby tubs--no lie, it was my sled for several years) and, after a few practice runs in my backyard, I's go to our neighbor's house with a great hill and spend the day sledding down. And that was pure bliss.

Snow days as a grown-up aren't as much fun. Granted, as a teacher, I do still GET snow days (which is good since I don't know how to drive in snow and prefer to stay home anyway). But what kid gets sick of snow days? We've had a ridiculous amount of snow this year. No, we don't live in D.C. or anywhere on the east coast, which has been hammered with snow, which currently sits taller than me. But we've had 3 or 4 storms dump 4-6 inches on us at a time. Snow days make me lazy. That's a lie. I'm pretty lazy period. But it's even HARDER to motivate myself to get off the couch for lunch, much less to vacuum or get the load of laundry from the weekend that is STILL sitting in the dryer. This last round has been a doozy. It started late Sunday night and we had maybe 3 or 4 inches by mid-morning. Local public schools were out for the holiday (and Husband was home-Yay!-to spend the day with me), but many schools were using the day to make-up snow days...only to have a snow day.

They're still out today, including schools that NEVER close. One of my tutorees was lamenting the fact that her school never closes for snow. It was the only school in all of our county to be open with the last storm. Guess who's out today (along with all of the others)? Private schools here often make their own call and often are in session, but even those are out now. I just measured the snow on our back patio and we range from 4 inches closest to the door to 6

inches on our table. The drifts are crazy too! I'd take pictures of the drifts, but you can't tell how much it is. I can show y'all these though:

My attempt at a drift photo. Really doesn't give a frame of reference.

Snow sliding down the roof.

6 inches on the table. Crazy drifts behind it, too!

The snow on the seats meet the bottom of the arm rest.

Snow, go away. I used to love you, but now I'm kind of apathetic. Go away for a long time and we may be able to renew our relationship. Anyone need a buddy to go to the Caribbean?

Snow-Pocolypse

Last week we were hit with an earth-stopping snow storm. Is it a requirement for weather forecasters to think anything beyond 72 and sunny is the end of the world? If you're in the Huntsville area, ask Dan. Y'all know what I mean.
Sorry. Anyway, apparently the end of the world includes a whole 4 inches of snow. I know. Wow! To my little Alabama heart, this is a whole lot. I didn't leave the house for a full 4 days. At least I admit I can't drive in snow!
This is what the end of the world will apparently look like.

Day 1: Out front.

Day 3: Out back

End of day 3. 4 inches!

I will say, the kids in the house behind us had a blast. I'm looking forward to one day playing with my kids on snow days, making snowmen, making snow angels, sledding, eating snow cream, and coming inside for some hot chocolate. The best part is, we're far enough north that it would be a more regular occurrence than when I was a kid. But all of that will wait a little longer. I'm selfish with the snow cream like that :)

Defying Death and Disappointing D-2 Football

There's this stuff up here in Kentucky. When it gets real cold, it starts to fall from the sky. It's white. We don't really get that down in Alabama, especially not in December. Yeah, it snowed today.
I remember asking my admissions counselor at Transy how much it snowed, after seeing those fabulous "Emergency Snow Route" sign. She assured me that they may get a few more days, but it wouldn't be any different; the signs simply showed which roads were plowed first (THAT should have been a tip-off: plows?). My freshman year: the second time Transy EVER canceled classes because of a snow/ice storm. The other was for Indian attacks. Yeah, no different my big toe.
Anyway, no one really saw this HUGE mass of snow heading for us, so there was no pre-treating the road with a salt-water mix. No salt. Not even sand (what they sometimes use in AL). We did not know ANY of this today.
We woke up with big plans of depositing a check and getting gas, then finishing Christmas shopping by hitting up Lowes, the mall, and Target, before getting lunch and a Christmas tree. As we ate breakfast, it began to snow ("Hey, look. It's snowing!") By the time we were done, the sidewalk was covered (but we couldn't really tell), as was our parking lot. We ventured out anyway. The parking lot wasn't too bad, but there were definate slick spots. What surprised me was that Clearwater (our street) was just as covered, only it was packed down by cars instead of melted. As we made the turn onto Tates Creek, my car slid some, but nothing too bad. Now, let me interject, Tates Creek is one of the major "arteries" running through Lexington that feeds into downtown, thus is part of the snow route. It should have been one of the first cleared, but it was just as bad as the neighborhood road. We made it to the gas station and watched as wreck after wreck was narrowly avoided. We were finally able to cross to the bank and deposited my check. I then made the executive decision that the safest place for us was at home. There were 2 wrecks on our way to the bank and one on our way back. Everyone was creeping, yet still sliding. Southern or not, that's not safe! We stayed in and watched football (I'm glad Bama lost, but sad that Florida had to win) and napped. We did venture back out in the evening for dinner and to get our tree. The snow had mostly melted from the streets, so I felt much better. Plus Adam drove!
We have a fairly busy week this week, ending with a trip to Franklin for Christmas #1. We were sort of hoping for a reason to go to Florence that Saturday, but UNA had to go lose. It's probably for the better. I'm not sure either one of us REALLY wanted to sit in the car for another 4 hours, plus a football game on top of Christmas. We are sad they can't play for the title at their home stadium. Maybe next year.