Every color of the rainbow and then some
A southeast Troll-land journalist / blahgger that I follow has been referring to this winter’s conditions under foot as “Icy Lumpy F*ck”. I’m not going to permanently usurp her term but lemme tell you I was walking on ILF this morning. Actually, every foot step required an evaluation (dry pavement? wet pavement? packed snow? lumpy ice? glare ice?) and a decision (street? sidewalk? edge of sidewalk / street where there’s packed snow?). And what if I was in the street (in the dark) and a car came along and I had to cross glare ice to get outta the road? Exhausting? Yes. Psychologically anyway. Here I am standing on ILF in my driveway. (I think my feet have a bit of a wicked witch of the east look, don’t you?)
The forecast? Freezing rain turning to rain and 40s. So the whole Planet Ann Arbor population was surprised when 10 AM brought blizzard conditions!
We were in a meeting during this and FZ spent the *entire* time looking out the window at the snow, so he was the second person to spot lightning (W1.5 was first). I exclaimed, “Oh shoot, I missed it again!” The CRD said, “Well go outside and stand in it.” [Say that in a Russian accent, if you please.] Others chimed in with stuff like, “Yeah take a key and a kite.” And this is what it looked like out the lunchroom door.
As I was taking this photo, a co-worker from the Indian subcontinent came along and asked me how I liked this weather. As much as I have been kvetching about weather this winter, I was loving it today. Enter another Indian co-worker who mentioned that I was from the yooperland. They both giggled like crazy and so did I! Then the LSCHP came in and there was a conversation about whether we could change the weather or maybe swap places with the folks at our Florida mothership for the winter (probably not…). And finally the CRD (Russian, remember) wildly proclaiming that he would call the mayor of Moscow to get the weather changed. But we might not like the change [wink wink]. Later on the snow did turn into rain and although I don’t think the temperature ever got above 36, the roads were really not slippery, just flooded in places. Planet Ann Arbor folks might recognize the next photo as northbound N. Maple between Maple Village (KMart) and Veteran’s Park. It’s a crappy photoooo but I was *driving*. I was about to splash through yet another puddle lake.
Finally, the photooo below is the end of my driveway this afternoon. I was slodging through several inches of water and snow and ice, schlepping the handy-dandy Planet Ann Arbor garbage and recycle carts down to the curb. This photo does not do justice to the depth of wet snow and water (and ice). My feet were soaked at the end of this. Thank you Zeus (or whoever) for hot running water. It felt so good to wash my feet after that.
And then the GG came home and after yelling “LUUUUUCY, I’M HOOOOOME!”, he disappeared (I was in the Blue and Only Bathroom washing my feet). He was actually trying to shovel WATER! I mean, that is what was out there today. He was out there for a long enough time that I actually went out looking for him at one point. Yes, he was okay. Thank you Zeus!
February 20th, 2014 at 10:00 pm
Snow is pretty but slush is just damn annoying. That’s what we usually end up with after a snowstorm. (and pretty quickly) I have three sets of snow boots in the garage and I’ve used several sets this year. I hate having wet feet. And ICE is a demon. I related to your psychological exhaustion after navigating the ILF; it’s how I feel driving in snow, ice, slush around here when I’m dealing with all sorts of changes in elevation. HILLS.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:06 am
Our weather forecast for yesterday was for rain in the morning and the cold front would push through around 3:00. Sure enough, it rained in the morning and stopped. The end of the day comes and the 1st graders are shoving their coats in their backpacks because it was warm at lunch. Two minutes later, they look out and see that it is pouring! Out come the jackets, and we dash out to the buses. One little one has forgotten her bus stop because she only rides once in a while. I dash back to the office to find out, when I come back out the rain has stopped. When I’m walking in with another teacher, the sun is shining. Time? 3:07. Most accurate forecast I’ve ever seen, and totally all in the mad dash to get the kindergartners and first graders out to the cars and buses. Bizarre.
February 21st, 2014 at 8:33 am
I was in my boss’s office from 10 – 11, on the 9th floor, so had a great view of the storm. meeting starts — a few snow flakes, more flakes and bigger. downtown starts to disappear, downtown is gone and flakes are huge and fluffy, building next door is now gone – total white out. We had been on a conference call with the UK, so my boss never turned around and maybe never noticed that I was mostly looking out the window (although not day dreaming). After the call ended I said ‘turn around and look outside’. yeah — good times. The good times ended at the end of the day when I went to Tar-jay. The parking lot was all deep slush and huge puddles. My feet were completely soaked and that slushy water was COLD! yes – get home, shoes and sox off, feet in tub, and then slippers. 😉
next week – back down to zero. remind me of this when we’re huddled in ‘the hole’ next summer when it will actually be 50 degrees warmer.