Wednesday, January 19, 2011

I Hope Everyone Got Home Okay Tonight

Hi there! It's another snowy night here in Central Missouri, and we're really gettin' it this time. They're saying up to nine or ten inches in some places, by the time it's done snowing tomorrow. And of course, the snow started right before 5 p.m. rush hour.

This is the kind of snow that, once it started, came down fast. An inch per hour, they're saying.

I tried to encourage Sue to leave work early, but you know how she is. Such a dutiful employee.

By the time she got home, she was pretty shook up. "There were times when I absolutely couldn't see the road. If it weren't for those reflectors along the roadside, I wouldn't have known where I was."

The snow was coming down so fast her wipers and defroster couldn't keep up. The wipers got iced up, then wouldn't seal against the windshield, and then a layer of ice built up on the windshield. She had to pull off the road twice to scrape off her windshield. Yuck!

It's usually a half-hour drive home, but it took Sue a couple of hours. (Granted, about thirty minutes of it was spent on messed-up roads in Columbia.)

All this time, I was trying not to worry about her--she has a cell phone; if something went wrong, she'd let me know. Right?

I thought about calling her, but quickly rejected that idea: Of course she would need both hands on the wheel, and completely undivided attention to the road.

So I busied myself with dinner. I had finally gone for a "big" shopping trip this afternoon, so I had cilantro and other goodies for my homemade vegan posole, which is the perfect thing for a cold night. Spicy and rich, and flavored of corn--what a comforting flavor. The soup was just finished when Sue came home.

I also had made a pot of chai for us. For those of you who "buy" chai, let me tell you, it's the easiest thing to make on your own.

When Sue got home and pulled off her wet coat, hat, shoes, etc., and slipped into comfy warm clothes, I encouraged her to sit on the sofa and sip chai. I had some too, while she told me all about the drive home, and I rubbed her feet. Poor thing!

So of course dinner was a success--actually, I could have served cold cereal, and Sue would have been appreciative.

She took "work" home with her, so she won't have to drive back to Columbia tomorrow morning. So we're home and fed and comfy, the kitties are giving us moral support, and I've been taking pictures out the front window as the snow accumulates.

I'm a big fan of webcams, but I don't have the technology to offer that yet. But here are my pics so far, taken about every half hour since 4:30 p.m. or so. This is the 600 block of Broadway, looking south.

If you had to be out this afternoon and evening, I hope you got home okay.

Stay warm!











5 comments:

Michael Saar said...

Looks like a nice snow to enjoy from indoors. If I may indulge in a bit of nostalgia... I have fond memories of snow in JC. I don't remember knowing what a "snow day" was. We took our sleds to grade school (Moreau Heights had a great hill on the grounds) We could generally get anywhere we needed to go in town in the snow. The street treatment of choice was cinders-there were a number of places that still heated with coal into the 60s. In our house it was expected that we go to work/school no matter. One insanity I remember is that my Mother, Father and I walked to work/school after an overnight ice storm. We walked to Employment Security/Simonsen/Jefferson Building. I never thought I would ever have my own "walked 5 miles to school, uphill each way" stories, I was wrong. Even as recently as late mid-century, expectations were different than today. (We are expecting the tail end of this weather tomorrow, 1"-3" locally)

whalechaser said...

I love the progression of snow shots! I am glad everyone seemed to finally make it to their destinations safe and sound, this weather can be scary!
Arkansas is getting their share of this too, it is a rarity. And today I will enjoy it, since I made my provisions run yesterday and have no place I need to be but home.

Julianna Schroeder said...

It was a pretty big dump for around here--at least half a foot. We can get more (I recall 18 inches a while back...) but those are exceptional events. I do know it's all relative, and the "locals" adapt to whatever's "normal" for an area. I try to dial back to when I lived in Montana, and this would be nuthin', NUTHIN'! Pish! Tosh!

Julianna Schroeder said...

And Michael--the city of Columbia uses its cinders from the city power plant to treat its roads, and it's really something when it's done on a citywide scale. A janitor I worked with had brilliantly colorful language for "that F-head who decided to put black cinders all over the roads in this town!" (The carpeting at that office place was mauve, and always turned gray in the winter, despite his best efforts!)

Julianna Schroeder said...

Michael, you'll like this bit, too: My dad has told me about when he was a kid, and his dad and grandpa used to set a bucket of cinders (from the home furnace), and a shovel, along the street here by Broadway hill, for people to use when they were having trouble getting up it.

Here's the address for the post with that story...it's one of my favorites:
http://opulentopossum.blogspot.com/2010/01/slippery-slope.html