Snow Day!

As El muy viejo Sargento de la Fuerza Aérea reported on Saturday a large winter storm was headed his way and he was looking forward to some snow.  Some folks are, as they say, "a day late and a dollar short."

For, you see, Texas had already experienced said storm.  Literally, the day before.

Well, juvat, how was it?

Evidently, as reported here from a position close to the coast and close to Corpus Christi, it was comparatively bad.  Reports from some of Mrs Juvat's customers from the Houston area reported nearly an inch.  Austin ISD cancelled school. 

Here in my locale?

Horrible!  (Pronounced Haw' ripple)

There was panic in the streets (Well the local supermarket parking lot anyhow.

Evidently mass starvation was imminent.

And, by the time I got home, even the horses were panicked.

OK, maybe not panicked per se.  But...Hungry.

By the time I got to the barn, the snow drifts were starting to form.

The snow had gotten so deep, it felled some trees.  (with the help of a chain saw, last summer)

The horses did come running, but they do that anytime I approach the barn.  That chore completed, I gathered some firewood, started dinner (chicken, barley and pea soup, thanks for asking), started a fire, in the fireplace of course, and awaited the return of Mrs Juvat from her day of mercantile activities.

That night we received word via the Bat Phone that the following day school would be delayed by two hours due to blizzard like conditions and "an abundance of caution".  What does that mean anyway?

So...I poured myself an additional libation and rewatched "White Christmas", because it IS the Christmas Season and apparently tomorrow would be white.  Made sense to me at the time.

Dawn broke, (no, I couldn't sleep an additional two hours, bladders wait for no man), and I peeked out the window.  To what did my wondering eyes appear?

Well, there was a nice 6 point deer, but that's not important now.

The Humanity! *

What to do?  Will I be able to make it in to work?  

Taking my life in my hands, I decide to brave it and head to work at my regular time.  Placing my faith in the creator and knowing that nobody else would be there for two hours, thus I could work uninterrupted, I walked out the door.

Where I promptly needed my highly tuned gyroscope, to keep my head and feet in their proper orientation vis a vis the ground.  You may notice a slightly different colored patch in the lower right of the above photo.  

Physics, (my favorite science) would dictate that a liquid such as rain, or melting snow, when chilled below, say 32^o F, becomes a solid known as Ice.  But, as I say, I avoided impact with the ground and proceeded on my way.

Forewarned to be on the look out for glassy looking spots, I passed our relatively well stocked wood pile, pictured above just to document that there was actually some accumulation of snow that fell.  It just didn't survive long on the ground, warm as it was.

Drove off towards the highway, keeping an eye out for suicidal deer (one of whom terminated Mrs Juvat's vehicle last month,  USAA finally called it quits and totaled it. Visiting the Car Dealer on Tuesday, more to follow)

As I passed through a particularly scenic and peaceful part of the journey, I saw this little piece of Winter Wonderland.

So stopped the car (of course) and took a snap.

The rest of the journey in was wondrous.  I saw no cars, in either direction.  Nirvana achieved!

That evening as I retraced the route (with cars this time), I was treated to a nice present from the guy upstairs.

If anything the colors are a bit subdued in the picture.  He did well with that sunset.

I also got a present from My Beautiful Daughter.  As I said, Austin, San Antonio and Corpus got quite a bit more snow than we did.  MBD was driving to the supermarket  with a friend  after work when she saw a man in a wheelchair trying to roll himself up a hill in the snow and having a very difficult time making progress.  She circled the block, had the friend drive the car while she pushed him up to the top.  (The friend drove along beside for safety. Yes, I asked.)

It's nice to get a little reminder that maybe, just maybe, we did ok in raising our kids.