Ice Storm

Well now I've seen yet another exciting piece of Texas weather, the ice storm! It's funny but they get obsessed about the weather here in Dallas. Two days before a storm, all you hear on the news is there might be an ice storm. Everyone gets all excited. Then when the storm hits, it's round the clock coverage of the storm on the news. They station each news reporter all over the metro area, and just show them standing by some overpass. They comment about how it's raining and now it's turning to ice. They show ice on their cars. They show ice on their coats. They show unfortunate cars crashing into each other on the roads. We even had a 15 minute segment about a reporter showing frozen ice on the sidewalk, and letting us know that you can't walk on it (no way!). Then she proceeds to show that if you run and hit the ice you can slide on it! (who knew!!). Of course this amuses us people from the north to no end. Icy sidewalks are not news. Seriously the south get's so funny about snow and ice, and they panic.

Anyhow we did get a pretty big ice storm. I do have to say ice storms are a completely different experience than snowstorms. It just rains, but the air temperature is cold enough to freeze it once it touches anything. Tree's, streets, everything gets coated in a layer of ice. It's very pretty to see, but awful to drive on. They try and sand the streets here, but it's just slick as heck. People don't know how to drive very well when they slide either. They either go way too fast, or slam on their brakes. Well so when we woke up to a sheet of ice everwhere I decided to let it thaw out a bit before venturing out on my long commute to work. It took me an hour to get to work, and I slid around a bit, but made it accident free. Unfortunately I ended up being the last one to show up at my office. I then had to hear everyone laughing about how the guy from the north who should be used to snow and ice was the last one to show up at work. Of course I'm the only one with sense enough not to try and drive on the super slick crap until it thaws a bit.

Well so there was our excitement for the week. Of course it's back to 70 degrees today, and we're getting the fixings all ready for watching the superbowl. Man I'm ready for spring!!! Here are a few pictures I took of the ice:

Here is the frozen rain in our downspout

A closeup of our frozen downspouts

Our patio table and chairs and pool deck covered in ice