Nonessential Personnel

I woke up to a snow/sleet/freezing rain mess this morning. I didn't want to drive into work, but I'm a good employee, so off I went. I spun the tires a few times and had to drop the Escape down into a lower gear twice, but I made it safe and sound.

However, about 10 minutes into my commute, I saw this on 35 south right after the entrance ramp from 210 west.

It's an eighteen wheeler on its side with an SUV resting against a set of its tires... facing the wrong way. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but EVERYONE slowed down to look at it. I even had enough time to take this wonderful photo. Camera phones are spiffy.

After arriving at work, they sent us home five hours later. All department members deemed "Nonessential Personnel" were allowed to leave. (That's me.) Sweet! So, I went home after lunch.

On the way, I was prepared. I figured there wasn't much chance of getting that JB Hunt truck off of the road in five hours. I was right. On the way home traffic slowed again, and to my left, they were trying to hoist the truck back to its wheels. I didn't get a really good look at it because traffic was still moving a bit and I was blindly snapping pictures in the direction of the truck. Here's what I got:

The red truck is the one trying to right the fallen JB Hunt truck.

There's the truck still resting on its side.

And here's the side of the truck as I passed. You can see the chains wrapped around the middle of the trailer.

Anyway, this was my entertainment for the day. I got home slightly before 2pm and let all the dogs outside. Remy's a much bigger wuss about the cold and snow than our visitors are, but she wanted to play with them a lot more than they wanted to play with her.




You know, even though this weather got me out of work early, I am still really sick of it. I'd really enjoy it if we could get some warmth soon. I'm super tired of the 19 degree weather. I mean, I still haven't taken down my Christmas lights because it's been just too damn cold to do it.

I'm sure I should probably do something productive with my newfound time off, but I think I'm going to take a nap. Because I can. And I'm that lazy. And it's freakin' freezing outside and too crappy to really go anywhere.

So... Happy snowy Thursday, everyone.


End Blog.

Technically, It's Not Even Winter Yet

Jack Frosty the Snowman stopped by my house today. He also got me out of work an hour earlier than I'm used to, but that entire time was spent in the car doing 12 miles an hour trying to get home. But, for now it looks pretty. And it appears that the insulation in my house is doing its job.

Today that song is totally right. It IS beginning to look a lot like Christmas.





But you know the best part about my job and it snowing (apart from finding the footprints of doom more easily and getting to leave early)? I have an ASCLD calibrated ruler to measure the snowfall amounts! And since I also recognize that my love for the metric system is not shared by the rest of America, you even get to see the snowfall total in inches. I know, I'm too kind.




Remy was surprised to see me home so early. She came to the door slowly with a sleepy face and said, "What time is it? What's going on?" But once she got outside, she couldn't have been happier. I, however, asked her why she didn't shovel the driveway. Her smart reply? "You don't have a shovel, and even if you did, I'm not shoveling a gravel driveway." I guess I can't blame her. I'm not going to do anything about it, either. Let's just hope I make it out of my driveway in the morning.


So, I let Remy out and she ate some snow, and played some ball, and then proceeded to smell the entire yard. Because, I guess snow makes everything smell different. No, I mean the entire yard.

Now we're warm inside and I'm gonna go figure out what kind of alcohol goes best in eggnog.


End Blog.