Well, it's been kinda crazy here in River City the last couple of days. We had a bit of a winter storm, and as you might imagine, here in the middle of Texas, where the best description of summer is "blast furnace," we're not exactly prepared for ice. We don't know how to drive on it, and even if we did, we're in no position to do it. We don't have all-weather tires or chains for our tires - I don't even think they sell them here. We don't have salt trucks, and we have like one sand truck for the entire city (why buy an entire fleet for the one day all year it might ice over?). Oh, and our freeways are frought with "flyovers" - these roads that are built to facilitate interchanges by soaring above the intersections below. So you don't have to sit at an intersection to get off of I-35 and onto 183, for instance. You just get into the right lane, and then you fly right over the intersection and are magically deposited into the flow of traffic for 183.
The picture doesn't really give you the scale I'm describing - high-wire act circus performers fear some of our flyovers. They're high, man. And without the ground underneath the roadway, it doesn't take much for them to ice over. It's just not a pretty sight around here when it gets icy. The official word is we had more than 800 accidents in 24 hours.
So, the best thing to do in these situations is just stay home. Heat up some chili, put on your bunny slippers and pop in a movie (because your cable or satellite dish may be iffy). What movie should one watch? Why a winter-themed movie, that's what! Get in the spirit! And which one? Why, something uplifting! Like this family favorite:
http://waxy.org/random/view.php?type=video&filename=shining_redux.movThat trailer makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. I'm going to go rent that right now.
2 comments:
Z, your posts make me laugh... especially since I live here, too, and can relate to most of what you're talking about. Yes, the ice storm was a little crazy this week. Got off work at UT early on Wednesday due to the "early close for inclement weather", and so of course, I went shopping! By the time I came out of Kohl's at 5:30pm, my car had a lovely layer of ice over it. Well, what the hell, I drove to Laurie's anyway cuz I HAD to see the ring! Fortunately, I made it home safe and sound Wednesday, but heard the multiple accident reports throughout the newscasts all day on Thurs. We just don't know what to do with ourselves in central Texas when it ices!
Wow, it just didn't get that bad here - the roads were fine, but there was ice all over my hibiscus plants and on the kids' toys outside. Just that little bit further north seemed to cause that many more problems! We didn't even get a later start to school! WAH!
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