Friday, January 19, 2007

A brief outing on Thursday

Thursday was my opportunity to make a brief outing to restock at the grocery store. It took me a good 25 minutes to scrape the ice off the windshield, hood and roof. It was kind of fun sliding off the huge pieces on the hood and roof and hearing them shatter on the far side of the car.

Even with that, while the car was warming up, getting out of the drive was a struggle. Fortunately I picked a time when traffic was sparse before trying to back up. Good thing, too. Getting over the 3 - to 4 -inch hump of ice behind the car was like trying to drive backwards over a curb. Once out, I was able to drive almost 5 mph down my street to the major intersection a block and a half or so from the house. When I got there it was pretty clear sailing to the grocery store three blocks away. About half the width of the outer lanes still had piles of ice, but the center lanes were actually passable!

The grocery store parking lot was half-frozen, half-flooded and plenty full of the cars of other shoppers trying to stock up before the approaching snow storm.

Speaking of snow... I'm honestly scared of what's coming. The "solid forecast" for the weekend is snow, a lot of heavy, wet snow. The forecast is for 5 to 12 inches! YES!! And in poor Amarillo, Texas, the forecast is for 19 inches! YES!! You read me right!!

The snow is supposed to start here about 11 p.m. Friday, moving northeast. It is supposed to snow at least through Sunday, and I'm afraid it could be at least another week before I'm brave enough to sally forth again.

I may be able to get some photos once the snow gets here just to show you how deep it gets, but it will have to be what I can shoot from here because I promise you I won't be driving on it! Yeah, call me the big Snow Chicken if you want. Bwak! Bwak!

When this stuff passes, look for me at Starbucks. My coffee buddy and I have missed three weeks so far and we're both having withdrawal.

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