First Snowfall 2007

First snowfall yesterday-- lasted maybe an hour. Big white flakes mixed with rain. Didn't stick. (no surprise)



Second snowfall today--little flakes, big flakes, mixed with hail the size of bean-bag stuffing, mixed with raindrops from time to time. Stuck to the roadways!! (startling, really..) Very unpredictable driving conditions. Many cars in ditches. One of those cars ours. (VERY unpredictable driving conditions-- the hail mixed with snow mixed with rain and ice gives spots of traction and spots of sliding that just cannot be guessed or corrected for.) Thankful for AAA car assistance (though I suspect it will be a long time before they get far enough down the queue to help my sweetie get back on the road...)

Thank goodness I called him to let him know how careful he needed to be!

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AAA wait estimate: 4 hours

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I found the chains for both cars, was going to put chains on mine and drive the other pair out to him, but it turns out that the chains for my car are unforgivably difficult to work. (I have used many sets of chains before and never had so much trouble! .. of course, my knee is also not up for the challenge of kneeling at all, much less in the cold and wet, either.)

After half an hour of fussing with the chains and not succeeding at getting even one of them on a tire, I gave up. I would have attempted the drive without chains (very short drive, very familiar terrain) except that the sudden and freakish snowfall brought *every* one of my neighborhood's children (and grown adults seeking to behave childishly) out into the streets, and they were not getting out of the way of the few cars that were passing by (not stopping to my attempts to flag them. hmpf!)

Turns out Keithr also timed out on waiting around for me to arrive and was walking back to the house to get the chains.

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now he's back out in the cold (with new warmer clothing, at least!) trudging back to the car to put the chains on it so that he can bring it home.

Thank goodness for cyalume. (that'd be the glowy green safety light stuck to the back of his jacket so he'll get seen by the other vehicles on the roadway while he's walking.)

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it was rather amusing to see one of my neighbors out for a "walk" on his cross-country skis!



We usually don't get anywhere near enough snow pack to ski on! This snowfall is absolutely freakish. In the 1 hour between the time that I got home and called my sweetie to suggest that he come home due to the weather, and the time that he called me to say that his car was in the ditch (not actually in the ditch, it turns out! he got lucky.. off on the shoulder and close to the ditch, but not needing a winch-out! yay!) **3 inches** of snow had built up on the trunk of my car! **three inches!!!**

That's my car in the left of the picture! That's my car just *1 hour* after I pulled into the driveway!!! *3 inches!*

..and you can tell from the light bouncing off the snowflakes (I love how falling snow photographs!) how much of the stuff was still coming down!

I'm cancelling tomorrow. (well, more literally, I'm cancelling my out-of-house appointments for tomorrow!)