"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
My Boog Pages
Friday, December 1
Ice Ice Baby
So this week we had an outbreak of severe weather down here in Dallas. A cold front rolled in at about five o'clock on Wednesday, just as I was leaving work, and I have to say it looked pretty damn impressive, with sooty black clouds blotting out the sun in just 15 minutes our so, and the temperatures dropping a good ten degrees in the hour it took to get home.
On Thursday I got up at the normal time and headed in to work. It quickly became apparent that half the workforce decided it was too dangerous to drive that day, and the other half made sure to be extra careful by driving 60 miles per hour in the fast lane! What the hell is wrong with these people? It was over seventy degrees on Wednesday, no way the ground was going to freeze. I didn't see enough ice on my 40 mile commute to make a glass of tea.
For some reason people down here have an irrational fear of water in its solid form. When people see a white patch on the road they're like (cue Jessica Rabbit voice), "Oh my God it's ICE!!" If they don't see any, they're like, "Oh my God it's... BLACK ICE!!!"
So work was slow yesterday. When some sleet and snow started to fall around lunchtime my boss came around to say that the person on call (me) would need to stay at a local hotel. "But you know it's not going to freeze!" I said.
"Yeah," he replied, "but if you get a call and can't make it in, you're in trouble."
I'd been tipped off that this might happen and had an overnight bag in the car, so I sucked it up and stayed.
When I came out this morning, it was forty. No ice to be seen. Only... BLACK ICE!!!
