Local Winter Storm {and advisory}

This pic is when we lived in the house right before my Dad built the "New House". That's me on the left. Sissy is beside me and Sis is in the blue coat. {Hey, Sis, if you are reading this, I didn't cut you out of the pic on the left. Whoever took the pic must have been distracted by Cindy.}

Cindy was our beagle. We totally loved her. I'm pretty sure that I was escorting her out of the picture though.

In case you haven't heard (or if you aren't from here), NC has just experienced a winter storm complete with winter advisories. When I share a pic of the snow dusting at my house (when it started) you will likely not be impressed. But, as the TV anchors will tell you, it's not the snow...it's the ICE!

On Friday the Hubs drove me to work...we already knew that there was going to be a snow/ice storm that afternoon before 5:00 and we knew that I would simply have a panic attack if I tried to drive in it. So, the trooper that he is...he took me in. The snow flurries started around 11:00...and the roads looked fine from my office. The bad news was that the roads were getting worse as I tried to work and wait out the flurries. I didn't realize that between my house and work it wasn't flurries at all. In fact, it was freezing rain. 

When Hubs picked me up it was a little after 2:00. The road was fine UNTIL we got on the highway. Seriously, it was slush and ice. The good news is that everyone seemed to be driving reasonably slowly. We did pass a few cars that had crashed into the highway walls (both sides of the highway). In all of the accidents, we saw it looked like the cars were hurt but it looked like the people were not hurt. 

While I'm talking about this highway I think I need to clarify. I had said that the highway was a four-lane highway. Jordan tells me that I've classified it incorrectly. It's four lanes each way on each side. He says that's an eight-lane highway. I'm still not sure what to call it. But there are between four and five lanes on the road I'm traveling when I go this route. 

On our drive home the rain was actually freezing on our windshield. The windshield wipers and the defrost could not keep up. {Scary} We saw one car spin out but recover without an accident. {Miraculous} One of my favorite sights was a gold car with their hazard lights on. In a sea of cars traveling 25 miles an hour (on the highway), this one car felt the need to put everyone on alert by driving with their flashers on. I told Jordan I thought that it was redundant...I was pretty sure that everyone knew to watch out for each other. While it made me giggle, I really thought that the driver was using their hazard lights, not to warn others of the driving situation, but to let everyone know that they were SCARED. 

The best part? When we passed her (I think we must have been going 28 miles an hour) I looked over and saw that even though she was scared and driving in an ice storm with her hazard lights on...she was talking on her cell phone! {Hilarious.}

Once we got home I konked out on the couch. I think all of the breath holding while we drove in the storm exhausted me. Jordan woke me up at 7:00 so we could watch Jeopardy. {I'm a geek.} But, the local news preempted Jeopardy to continue to provide the latest on the local winter weather. 

I found the Winter Weather News Special entertaining. {Maybe because I was safe and sound in my warm living room...I had a sense of levity.} The news anchors rotated cutting to different reporters "on the scene" in different places in the county. These reporters would be standing in the freezing cold waiting for their turn to say things like: "Well, Steve, it is cold out here and these roads are slick. You can see the cars moving behind me and so far I haven't seen any accidents, but the police told me that they have responded to over 80 accidents so far. Back to you, Steve." 

My absolute favorite clip was when a news reporter was interviewing a woman at the scene of her car crash. The woman was inside her crumpled car. They were on the highway, the car had crashed into the highway wall and the reporter said, "Tell us what happened". The driver was quite animated as she told her story. She said, "I was driving here on this highway when my car started to spin. And I said 'OH MY GOD.' And I said 'Lord don't let me hit anybody.' and I spun around and BAM, I crashed right into this wall." 

The report didn't stop there. The woman went on (using hand motions to describe what she saw). She said, "And after my car stopped and I had hit the wall I called my daughter to come and get me. And while I'm sitting here I see a truck in front of me slide and spin around and I said 'Oh Lord...he's coming right for me! He's going to hit me. Lord, don't let him hit me. When BAM he hit the wall.'"

Oh my gosh that was funny. I tried to find the video clip to share with you but it wasn't online. 

So are you ready for the pic of the snow? Here it is. Just that little bit. But it had just started. By the time we got home the car was covered in ice.

Oh, snap. I forgot to say SPOILER ALERT. 

Remember when I told you:

Well, there were a few lessons. One being...all eras must come to an end and it's time for the "Girl that drives a RED BUG CONVERTIBLE" era to end.

You are looking at my new car. A VW GOLF. It simply makes more sense for long commutes. The bug was great....but was more for around town kind of driving and I need a different car for the different type of driving that I'm doing now.

The BUG? Still in the shop. But it will be good as new when it's out. Let me know if you are in the market for a cute red convertible. :)