Braving the Nasty Weather...

It was beautiful weather Friday night. The Snow was coming down in nice billowy large flakes that make you want to stick out your tongue with your mouth open and re-capture your inner child... which I did during my trips unloading my event stuff from my van into the store... hopefully no one was looking, but honestly, some probably were... I could not help it!

I left at 11pm to go home... all was well... no sticking. Got up the next morning. Sticking...
Our neighborhood roads looked bad, but they never plow those. But surely they would plow the main roads... right?! And of course any self-respecting shop would open no matter the weather... right?! And if my gym is open, it should not be too bad... right?!

So, I decide to hit the gym before work. So get in my little lime-green mini-cargo-van-with-a-industrial size-light-bar-on-top work van (the booger mobile) and slide out of our driveway. Our driveway is on a hill, so I literally just released the emergency break, did not even put it in reverse, and slid... that should have been my sign.

I get to the main roads of our neighborhood... of course the are bad, they have not had time to plow. Then I turn onto the side road that leads to the main road... of course it is bad, it is just a side road. Then I get to Albemarle Road (a big busy road around Charlotte), and it is yucky. Slushy, but only slightly slidy. But of course they would clear off 485.... no sense turning back now. So I get on the interstate and...

My 15 min trip to the gym took 40 minutes. But after an hour+ there, maybe it would be better. Nope. I slipped and slided all the way to work where I was greeted by this:

Not too bad. They had plowed, it looked nice, and it was starting to rain... not snow... so most of this should be going away... right? The snow under the van was just slush.

Then I notice all the other small businesses are not open. Even the Chinese food place... which never takes a day off... EVER! Maybe a self-respecting business would stay closed on a day like today... silly me. I needed to come out anyway though because my signs are on a timer and if I did not come out they would have been blazing the words "Open" and "Snoballs" and "Ice Cream" from 12 noon to 11pm.

So, I get to work and of course NO ONE comes. Maybe later. Then about an hour later I look out the window to see a big ol' truck doing donuts in the parking lot. Immature... whatever...

Then Levi calls an hour later and said I should probably come home. He said the temp was dropping and the roads were turning to ice. So, then I look outside and now a 4-wheeler comes out of nowhere and starts doing donuts. Where do these people come from and why are they using my parking lot. Then I notice... he is not kicking up slush... he is not even breaking the ICE!!!

So, I do a few last-minute things before going home. I go to put a letter in the mailbox and end up ice skating across a solid sheet of ice. Then I go to the grocery store and all the snow from my shop to the store is solid as well. Then I have to warm-up the car because the rain on the windshield turned into a 1/2 inch of ice. And SLIDE out of my parking space. When I left their was a guy in a Volvo doing donuts in the parking lot. Maybe he was living out some Edward rescuing Bella fantasy. Weirdos.

So, I venture home... slowly... and now THIS is what the roads looked like:

SOLID ICE!

The thing I found funny was I did not see one car or van in the ditch. But I DID see about 6 4x4 trucks and SUVs off in the ditch. It is like my dad told me once. You do not need 4x4 in snow unless you just want 4 wheels spinning on black ice instead of 2. I felt a little smug driving my booger mobile past their blunders.

But the kids have had fun in the snow and ice. Here they are drying their carnage from their 2 days of fun!

I really did not mean for this to be so long... oops!