1.11.2011

Snow, Snow, Snow!

It's snowing in the south! The Atlanta metro area is pretty much locked down right now due to snow. All you northerners are probably laughing at us if you've caught news stories about empty store shelves . . .

But snow is a pretty big deal this far south. It hardly EVER snows here, and those rare times it does, it's usually just a tiny dusting that you can still see grass through.
This was a pretty big deal.
We still go out to play in it though . . .
Kinda sad, isn't it?
So, yeah, snow is a pretty big deal around here. Whenever the weatherfolks start telling us to watch out for snow, there's a mixed reaction from southerners. Half of us scoff at the weather reports and go about our business, trying not to get our hopes up. The other half of us panic, rush out to "stock up", and buy a bunch of milk, bread and toilet paper.

This weekend the weather reports were all saying 100% chance of snow starting Sunday night, so we were hopeful. The fam & I went out to do our normal grocery shopping,  and of course the stores were packed with frantic Georgians prepping for disaster. Other people I know that went shopping on Sunday told me that stores were completely sold out of bread products - not just loaf bread, but hot dog buns, bagels, english muffins, etc - and milk, and chicken. Our priorities are slightly different from the rest of the world, so we did alright. Nobody had sold out of coffee, oatmeal, and grapes yet.

And I might be the only person in Georgia that made a last minute, pre-blizzard thread purchase. Hey, a girl's gotta have priorities.


Pictured: Priorities (source)
 It started snowing around 9 Sunday night, but most metro area counties had already closed school by late afternoon. And boy did it ever snow! After about half an hour everything outside was covered with a blanket of white - I couldn't see the road, the driveway, at all. This southern flower was very excited. I kept getting up throughout the night to look out the window. My poor husband, who is from Chicago, and couldn't care less about snow, kept being woken up and urged to "Come look, there's more!"

And when we got up the next morning, this is what waited for us.
ooooohhh, pretty.
You guys! Lots n' lots o' snow! Remember how I said Georgia only gets a few flakes? Not this time! We had 5 inches at our house, and some places further up into the mountains got as much as 9!

All this snow is lovely and fun, but there's one small problem. We live in Georgia. We are not prepared for snow and ice. Not really. Everything shuts down. Everything. Not just schools, but banks, stores, restaurants. Everything. Misterlicious works for the CDC, and even it shut down due to inclement weather. So don't get any strange diseases this week, people, the Centers for Disease Control is iced over. Heck, even the mail hasn't been running. So much for "No rain, no sleet, no dark of night . . ." or whatever the motto is.

All my northern friends and family have been making fun of the south because everything comes to a grinding halt for a few inches of snow. But I keep reminding them that northern cities have something that we don't.

Snow plows. Ice trucks. Salt.

Nope, not here.(source)
Now, it's not that Georgia doesn't have any snow plows, it's just that we don't have enough. I heard on the news yesterday that we have only 600 trucks to cover the entire northern half of the state. That's not very many when you consider that some northern counties have that many.

You can see why we're all stuck. There are a few brave (or stupid) souls that venture out, and most of them get stranded in a ditch. My father-in-law drives a wrecker, and he loves the snow. He tells me "When you see white, I see green."

So, my northern friends, it isn't just that we're too scared to go out, or that we don't know how to drive in snow - the problem is that it's really not safe out there. So we're stuck. Still.
At least it still looks pretty


It's all my fault, really. That's what Misterlicious tells me, anyway. When we were out shopping I was laughing at all the panicked shoppers and the empty shelves. Believe me when I say, I'm a huge fan of being prepared, but I thought people were taking it a little too far. I figured we'd have a little snow, spend the day throwing snowballs and drinking hot chocolate, and then the snow would melt and everything would go back to normal on Tuesday. So I thought the people buying 5 gallons of milk and 10 loaves of bread were overdoing it a little. I kept saying "These people are nutty, it's not as if we'll be confined to our homes for days on end."

Oops. My bad, guys. We kind of are.

People are calling it "Snowmageddon" and "Snowpocalypse". Yesterday afternoon the snow changed to freezing rain. Now the interstates are covered with what the news channels tell me is "hockey-rink thick" sheets of ice. And it doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon. Some of the ice melted today, but it's already started getting colder again, so the standing puddles on the roads will be even more ice by morning. The mail didn't come again today. They've already cancelled school for tomorrow. The weather folks are saying it won't warm up until the weekend, so there's every possibility that we'll be home all week.

My nemesis.

My pretty little idea of a fun snow day, a little extra weekend, some light winter fun, and then back to normal life - yeah, not so much. Looks like we'll be staying at home for a few more days yet.

Good thing I stocked up on thread.