I don’t know what the weather’s like in your neck of the woods, but it is especially icky here. The temperature is hovering right around freezing, it has been raining all day, and the ground is solid ice. My college didn’t cancel classes, so I’ve had to already brave the horrid sidewalks and have to again in a bit for my afternoon class. I stepped in a puddle that was 3-4 inches deep (there was no other option-things are flooding!) on my way to my morning class. The water was so, so cold! It felt like my toes got to hang out in an ice bath for way too long. Not fun. Then after my class, I went to the campus post office to send some letters and check my mail, and the little incline up to the post office was entirely ice! Very scary. I’ve survived thus far, though, and my feet finally have feeling back in them after an hour in my warmest, dry-est pair of socks. I don’t have rain boots, so hiking boots it is for the walk to my second class! Hopefully, they’ll keep me nice and dry!
I have to admit, though, I didn’t feel so bad about the weather once I called my mom. My hometown got into the -20s/-30s over the weekend and lost power for over 12 hours. Most people have electric furnaces, so this has wrecked havoc across town. Even a couple of days after heat has been restored, people are discovering burst pipes in places that seemed fine yesterday. My grandparent’s house (they’re in Florida for the winter) has leaks, our church has leaks, the middle/high school has burst pipes, our other properties are still thawing out but most likely have leaks. Add to that a number of fires, and you’ve got a very miserable February break. My mom told me the firefighters haven’t sleep in over 2 days, and are running out of food and drink supplies.
I saw someone post on Facebook that at least it’s not snow. I disagree. I’d much prefer snow to this icky weather. At least snow is easier to remove from the sidewalk than inches of water! And it’s definitely more beautiful. It has certainly been a weird winter. It’s been way warmer than usual and we’ve only gotten a dusting of snow here and there. And now this yucky ice/rain mixture. It’s only February, but I’m thinking spring can come now (and I generally like winter!).
Update: I didn’t get this posted earlier, so I’m going to add the update that it’s now snowing big fat snowflakes and it seems a lot better out there.
How’s the weather where you live? Any fun weather-related stories?
The Oke Den 