Winter fun

It’s a little icy Down Here in Oklahoma today. A big ice storm arrived in the area mid-morning, and conditions have been deteriorating swiftly since then.

I saw an amazing sight today during my lunch hour. We live off a main state highway about three miles outside town. I’d gone home for lunch and was heading back up our dirt road toward the highway. When I got there, I looked east and saw probably 30-odd cars, trucks and semis sitting on the highway in the westbound lane. As I watched, a local state trooper whose cruiser is a large SUV came up the hill, pushing a car. A couple of guys in four-wheel drive pickups followed. They were pushing cars and light half-ton trucks up the long slope. One-by-one the cars were pushed til other, heavier vehicles could make it on their own power.

We ended up closing early in the afternoon, and as I headed back down our dirt road, I was dismayed and a little surprised to see that the gravel was solidly frozen. Usually, once you get off the pavement, things are much easier to navigate.

The ice is still falling and is supposed to continue throughout the night and all day tomorrow, so we will probably be at home. That’s not good, since tomorrow is press day at the paper. That means we’ve got to get the paper out, no matter what. Which means I’ll probably be out driving in the mess.

Oh well, I just hope our power doesn’t go out.