After experiencing one of the wettest years on record for this area…so far this has been a very dry winter for Tulsa. Several cold snaps, and just a teensy bit of freezing drizzle…but almost no rain, and no snow. Guess Portland’s been getting all of it this year (sorry, Erin).
So this morning I get up and leave the house to go to my favorite blogging spot, and there’s this crazy looking white stuff falling from the sky, and blowing in rippled patterns across the road.
Oh, yeah. Snow. That’s what it is.
Okay, so it’s mainly flurries, and just kind of dusting everything. But snow is snow! And it’s cold, but nothing like it is for you northern folks who are throwing cups of water in the air and watching it come down as ice cubes. (I used to live up north, so I do know what that is like.)
But today, it’s not enough snow to cause problems. Just enough snow to make things look purty.
It’s kind of funny, actually, because this little dusting thing is just about as much snow as this town can handle without shutting down. We usually get snow about 3-4 times a winter. But nobody seems to know what to do with it. It’s almost like you can hear some of the bigwigs having the same conversation every time it happens:
—
“Hey! What’s this white stuff falling from the sky?”
“Have we seen this before?”
“I’m trying to think…”
“Is it safe?”
“I dunno. It doesn’t hurt or anything. Might be poisonous, though.”
“What should we do?”
“What did we do the last time we saw this stuff?”
“Um…I think we closed down the schools.”
“Okay…let’s go ahead and do that. Just to be safe.”
“Anything else?”
“It’s starting to collect on the streets. Should we do something to scrape it off?”
“Not yet. It might be dangerous to pile it up. Let’s wait and see what happens.”
“The cars are starting to slip on it….”
“Come on, guys…we need to make some decisions here. There’s almost a half inch on the roads already! Do we need to shut the town down, or what?”
“Oh, all right. Let’s plow just the main roads. If we do much more than that, bad stuff might happen. Do we have anyone that knows how to drive the truck?”
“I’ll make some calls.”
“What about salt? I’ve heard salt helps to melt this stuff.”
“No. Salt’s no good. It damages the vehicles.”
“So does crashing them into trees.”
“Good point. Okay, let’s get some salt. But not too much. We wouldn’t want to make the white stuff angry.”
—
Sigh. Oh, well. At least it looks purty.
P.S. That last bit about salt damaging the vehicles came from an actual conversation The Wild One had with someone from Texas. The person changed her opinion about using salt when The Wild One reminded her that crashing cars does more damage than salt does…
Wayward Son
Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo.
I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
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Hey Jeff,
it would be neat to post comments about what the kids s in your area say when they woke up to see the snow this morning (as it’s only a few times a year)
WOWWWWWEEEE ! It’s snowing outside, did you see it !
Can I stay home today ?
Let’s go outside and catch some snowflakes on the way to school!
Mom, where are my mitts?
I hope it will last and snow for days and days …
— ((I suppose they don’t know what a snow day would be however or I could add that one as their final wish put out there)) —-
Anyhow, it was -31 in Ontario at 8:30 this a.m. My car didn’t seem to appreciate this too much.
Supposed to get colder tomorrow. I am thinking some people have no concept of how friekin cold that really is.
Ummm — and that would be too cold to snow
have a great day enjoying yer snow show
ruth
Jeff,
Stay warm!! Yes, indeed, as I watch the Today Show each morning as I eat breakfast, I’ve been seeing the reports about an extreme cold snap hitting the Northern, and Eastern states. Ugh. Temps in the minus range, wind chill factor up there. Brrr…
Honestly, I am praying for you and everyone undergoing this. I do understand what it is like, as the years I lived in Pullman for college, we experienced those sub-zero winters.
Ha ha! Also, I can relate to how your town goes into a slight “panic” or “Uh, what do we do?” mode, since it usually doesn’t get snow/such low temps that often. When I lived in Seattle, it was the same situation. After all, cities that typically don’t get snow/low temps, don’t need to allocate so much of their budget to purchasing things like road snow-plows, salt, etc.
Anyways, keep warm my friend!
I won’t “tease” you on how it’s about 75-78 degree here (hee hee!) Smiles 🙂
Blessings,
~Amy 🙂
No snow here…just temperatures in the teens and wind!
So have you ended up with much accumulation today?
And truth be told, your little dialog is exactly what happens here when it snows. We don’t know what the heck to do!
They handle snow the same way here in SC as they do in Tulsa: Close the schools, strip the store shelves of milk, toilet paper, etc., and wait for the “snow” to melt. Our real problem is ice. One winter we had freezing rain on Sunday evening, icy roads and no school on Monday morning, sunny skies and water on the roads by Monday afternoon. Monday night it got cold and the roads iced up again, so the whole process began again. We were off school for four days but enjoyed beautiful weather each afternoon. All because of 1 inch of ice. 🙂
Ruth,
The coldest actual temperature I remember waking up to was -20 (in Cincinnati). My car died on the highway that morning. I lived in Michigan as a kid, so maybe I’ve experienced colder; but I would’nt have known it b/c my mom kept me so bundled up that I sweated most of the winter. 🙂
You know what’s sometimes even more fun that kids seeing snow? Grownups seeing it for the first time. 🙂
Amy,
Thanks for, um, not teasing me. ?? 🙂
Aaroneous,
That’s almost long-pants weather for you, bro. 🙂
Erin,
No accumulation this time, just a dusting that’s already gone (or blown away). Which is odd for us. We usually get about 2-6 inches per snow event, and by this time of winter we’ve had at least one or two of those. But so far this year…nada.
Co-heir,
Despite the dryness, everyone here has actually been breathing a sigh of relief this year. Last December we had a mammoth ice storm that took out power to more than half the city and destroyed millions of trees. The landscape still reflects the damage, and probably will for several more years.
Here in Michigan, we have a lot of snow! The temperatures have been below 0 and that is without the windchill. More accumulation today. Despite the snow, people drive like maniacs-saw 3 mishaps while out today; 450 schools were closed yesterday due to the temp and snow removal businesses are raking in the gold!!! I don’t mind it when it snows. Fortunately, the biggest amounts have come in on the weekends when I do not have to go to work. 🙂