ice . . .ice . . .and more ice!!

ok - we live in the deep south . . .and we like it. One reason that I like it is because I detest - actually I D - E - T - E - S - T winter clothes. I will be in a room of 100 people and I will have on short sleeves and everyone else will have on wool sweaters or at least a shirt and a cotton sweater or a sweatshirt. I don't like long sleeves. I do own a few . . .but I'm not really a happy camper when I have to wear them. We will go years without any snowfall and I must say that we "miss"it when we never see it . . .but goodness gracious, we have had our share this year. I was looking through my pictures on the computer and was amazed. We had snow on Christmas day (which was cool because we have never had a white Christmas before!!). We had snow and ice the week before the wedding (I guess that was maybe January 10?). We had snow and ice on Thursday afternoon of this week. This morning, I looked out the kitchen window and lo and behold . . .ta dah . . .. snow again. I just looked again . . .the snow has stopped for now. I need to look at weather.com and see what the rest of the day will bring. We had a HUGE snowstorm back when Glenn and Laura were young - maybe 19 or 20 years ago. After that snowstorm, we bought a really cool sled which is hanging in the basement. I think the next time it snows big enough, I might have to get the sled out. The thing is . . .I'm a little bit chicken . . .but Mark and Laura could have lots of fun and I could take pictures, right?
Here are just some random pics from the different snow/ice occasions . . .during the storm that was mostly ice, the birds would come and land on top of the bird feeder to wait their turn and they would slide off. It was pretty funny. They would start sliding and they would start flapping their wings really fast. When the weather is really cold, the birds come in flocks and they are so interesting to watch. During one of the winter weather events, our deck stayed frozen for about a week - remember I live in the deep south!!!

I grabbed the camera to record this event. Our front porch steps were so frozen and Mark was trying to get the ice off because our Bible study group was coming to our house that night. As I snapped this photo, I heard him say, "I NEVER thought I would be doing this." You see, we don't have to shovel snow EVER here. By the way, he worked for an hour on these steps and we finally had to tie a rope across the bottom with a note that said, "Please come through the basement." As fast as he would remove a giant sheet of ice, the moisture underneath would re-freeze.

This was a piece of ice from the top of the garbage can. It was amazingly thick. BRRRR. Almost makes me want to wear long sleeves!!

I just stopped and looked at the weather for today. The sun is supposed to come out and the temps are supposed to go up to 41 - yippee!! BUT there is a chance of snow for next week.

The worst weather event was on Thursday of this week. The front (or whatever the weather men call it - event!) arrived earlier than they suspected so all the schools shut down early and businesses closed (because this is the deep south and we don't know what to do!!!). It took me 40 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic to go about 2 miles on the interstate. It normally takes me 20 or 25 minutes in rush hour traffic to drive home. It took me over an hour. I actually felt a little panicky! . . .which is probably what caused all the problems - everyone else evidently felt a little panicky also!!

Ok - I have procrastinated as long as possible . . .I am going to work on the Sunday School lesson for the John Wesley class now!! Stay warm!!