I live in Tennessee; we are in the Southern United States, but just barely. We still have winter’s although usually just unpleasant rather than really nasty ones. As a result, we don’t respond well to snow. We really have no idea how to deal with it and tend to go into a major panic if more than two falling flakes are seen. The early part of last week, winter sent us a diversion. It snowed for 2 days in a row, pretty steady. It would snow and the ground would turn white, then stop and the sun would shine and it would go away, only to repeat the cycle. You couldn’t get into a grocery store without a swat team to clear a path. Then it turned warm and everyone was running around without coats and happy. That lasted three days, and then it turned nasty. The bottom fell out of the temperature and it started snowing and it was serious about it. It snowed all day and night Saturday and Sunday and is still going on Monday. Locally we have between 4 to 14 inches, just depending on what part of the area you are talking about.
I got up a little early this morning. I knew I would have to deal with the snow which meant a slower drive to work, plus time to clean and thaw out the car. I ate and shaved faster than normal. Then I bundled up, two shirts, heavy pants, two pair of socks. I dug out my heaviest winter coat, insulated water resistant gloves, and a knit cap. Donning a pair of boots and this gear, I gathered a broom and then I did a stupid thing. I had a friends laptop that I reinstalled the operating system on over the weekend and my lunch. I opened the door and had to force it open against the snow. Until this point I had only the television news to go by and they were reporting this area as having from 3 to 6 inches. People kept calling in and claiming there was more out there, but I wasn’t paying attention. When I stepped onto the porch I sank into the snow. It reached the bottom of my knees. I fought my way through the snow, and basically fell off my steps. I stumbled plowed through to the driver’s side door, dropping my lunch several times. I used the broom to knock the snow off the door and immediate car top. The door was a little stubborn, but did finally open. I was I put my cargo down and started the car. Then I knocked the rest of the snow off it. I then cleaned off my porch steps and then went to the mailbox to put a couple of items in. This resulted in a couple of embarrassing falls, as I couldn’t see my driveway, yard, ect and the snow depth was anywhere from just above my ankles to halfway to my knees. I had used my leatherman to try and measure the snow depth, as it has an eight inch ruler on it, but the snow was deeper than eight inches on the car. My guess would be about 9 inches deep. When I returned from the mailbox, I swept a path across the porch to my front door and went into the house. The saving grace here is that the snow is a dry snow, so it wasn’t clinging and despite rolling in it a few times, I wasn’t soaked through. I retrieved my cell phone and turned off lights and stuff, locked up and drove, very slowly, on a road I could rarely see to work. I don’t think I slid but once on a curve where I had to leave the single track of ruts because of oncoming traffic. So far, none of my appointments have shown up, all but 4 have already called and cancelled. I had thought to leave early so I wouldn’t have to drive home in the dark, but unfortunately the one person who has called and not rescheduled is my very last appointment. He plans to be here.
