SNOW!!!

Anyone who lives in this area knows what my post will be about today. We officially had 12.5 inches of snow here on Thursday. That's the most EVER recorded for a single day in Dallas. It snowed continuously and heavily from 3:00 am, all through the day and until around midnight. Huge wet sloppy flakes. I took a few pictures. Of course. It's not like I've ever seen it like this around here. This picture to the right was taken Friday morning, looking out my front door toward my little tree over my mailbox ... which looks like a shrub, all weighted down and hanging on the ground. Luckily I didn't have any limbs break on my two little trees.

Dallas dodged at least one large bullet despite the unprecedented snowfall. It never froze. Well it froze last night, but it didn't freeze while the streets were wet and snowy and slushy. They were calling for freezing temperatures every night but it hovered at 33 degrees. So although the work commute wasn't as smooth as usual, there was no ice. No commute at 10-15 mph for 30 miles. I was so happy about that. I could actually enjoy the snow, since it didn't cause me too much trouble.

That being said, I had a flat tire on my way home from work Thursday. I ended up having to change a tire on my car in a snowstorm, standing in ankle deep slushy ice water. Not my most favorite memory. And yes, I have an auto club service. But it only took me about 30 minutes to change it, even in less-than-great conditions, and there's no telling how long it would have taken the autoclub people to get to me. Of course, I was pretty cold, with soaked and icy feet and hands by the time I finished.

Yesterday I went out and spent about four hours cutting back the yaupon in front of my house. I could do it without standing on a ladder even though they've overgrown up to the roof because the weight of the snow partially uprooted them and they were hanging over into my yard. You can see from this picture that they were not quite upright. Usually this one is rubbing under and along the roof edge you see here. So I cut them back and righted them as much as I could yesterday. The one at the far corner of the house I may have to take out. It's hanging way over into the yard and if it doesn't straighten up it will be impossible to mow under. We'll see. I think the one by the front door, which is the one in this picture, may do okay. There are mockingbirds who nest in these yaupons and yesterday morning when I left to run some errands one little mocker was sitting forlornly on a branch sticking out of this snow-covered, bent-over yaupon.

Quite a bit of the snow is still around. Friday it only got to about 36, so only streets were melted, but yesterday I think it got to about 45. The snow was melted enough out of the yaupons to let me cut them back without too much problem, and it wasn't too cold for me to work comfortably out there. And you know how I hate cold. Of course I was bundled up, but it was still not bad. Today there's still snow in yards, but concrete is clear and most trees and shrubs are clear.

This picture is what my peach tree and backyard looked like on Friday morning when I left for work. Everything was absolutely pristine and snow covered. Of course, I'm one of the lucky ones. The news said 200,000 people were without power from snapped and downed electrical lines. And many, many people have damage to house, car or property from broken off and downed tree limbs, or even whole trees. The funniest thing was watching people try to shovel their driveways with regular dirt shovels. No one around here has any reason to own a snow shovel. Plus the cities have no contingency plan for lots of snow. They have sanding trucks galore, but we didn't need sand. We needed snow plows. So there were definitely some amusing aspects of the situation. Amusing in retrospect of course. Even a snowy tire-change is amusing in retrospect. I can't print the words I was screaming as I realized I had a flat tire, and was getting over and off the highway. I had to replace the tire since I drove on it flat, but at least the wheel rim was okay. I wasn't staying on the side of the highway to change that thing, and the next exit wasn't that far.

So we had some snowy advneture days here in the South. It's okay occasionally, but I hope it's not going to happen a lot. I really will have to move farther south.

Shopping!!!! :D

I really love to shop. It just makes me incredibly happy. I'm sure it's a serious personality flaw, but oh well. I'd like to claim that I'm simply doing my part to stimulate the economy, but the truth is, I just love to spend money.


From the title you can probably tell what I've been doing today. My intentions were good when I started out. I was going to run a couple of minor errands and shop for that oh-so-elusive 80th Birthday gift for my Mom. I did do those things .... too.


Here's how the morning went:


I left the house about 8:00 am, and started out by taking clothes to the cleaners. I think this may have been the only stop I made today that I didn't buy something, and of course I will buy their services when I go back to pick up those clothes. Next was Walmart for a hand vacuum, a current/voltage detector and a couple of surge protectors. Then I ran over to PetSmart to stock up on cat food and cat litter, and stopped by Staples while I was near to get some sheet protectors for trading cards. Next I went to Michael's (crafts and hobbies place) and got some poster frames because I ran out in January hanging calendars. Then I went to the Mall. While I was at the Mall I stopped in Barnes & Noble (bought a book ... yes, only one), J.C.Penney (bought clothes), Christopher & Banks (bought clothes) and Macy's (bought clothes) and window-shopped at multiple jewelry stores. I managed not to go into any jewelry stores, so no purchases there. Ah! I went into Things Remembered and didn't buy anything, so that was two places this morning where I didn't spend money. After leaving the Mall, I ran by Fry's Electronics for a possible gift idea and bought it. Then I stopped for gas (bought gas), and stopped at a fast food place to pick up lunch (bought food). I pulled back into my garage about 12:10.


*laughing* Not bad, huh? That's nine stops (counting the Mall as one), or 13 places I went to where I could have spent money. And I did spend money at 11 them. Pretty good average. And in only four hours. That's what I call a productive morning. I'm lucky all those places are within about a 5 mile radius of my house.


No, there's nothing wrong with RoboVac. I've been wanting a small hand vacuum for those small spills of cat litter or other things that I hate getting the upright or Robo out for. Robo still does a great job. Zoe is getting to the point that she doesn't run and hide whenever it's running, although she still stays well clear of it. Addy ignores it completely.


It's nice and sunny out today, if somewhat cooler than I like. It's about 45 degrees, give or take a few degrees. I'm watching the morning temps these days so I can drag the aloe vera back into the garage if necessary. This morning it was 38. It's supposed to stay above freezing until Tuesday, then hit 26 again. We've had a LOT of freezes this winter. We usually get one, maybe two good solid freezes a winter, so this one has been unusual. We call those "hard freezes". That's a Southern term and it means a freeze down into the mid-20's or lower, as opposed to a freeze right at 32 degrees or hovering just below freezing. I'm not sure where the term "hard freeze' started, but Northerners don't use it, so I suspect it originated with the citrus growers. Probably if it's going to be a 'hard freeze' they have to start countermeasures to save their crops. Just a guess.


Hmmmmmm. since I was so productive this morning, maybe I'll continue and get some house chores done.

Later.