Ice/Snow-maggedon 2011

February 1st, which also happens to be my mom's birthday, brought the worst winter storm I can remember to the DFW area. Last year, we had a record snowfall in February, but what made this storm so bad was a combination of unfortunate events. First, it rained/sleeted, which caused the roads/driveways/everything to turn into a sheet of ice. Then the temperature dropped below freezing for the next several days so the ice never melted. To add insult to injury, on the 4th day of the "event" it snowed a couple inches of snow ON TOP of the ice. The schools were closed for 4 days. I was so JEALOUS!!! That NEVER happened when I was in school!!

Here is Day Five of Ice/Snow-maggedon. Yes, I said, DAY FIVE:


This little hill at the end of our street proved to be a challenge for drivers for several days. They finally sanded it, just before it snowed again!


I ended up staying home on Tuesday - the first day of the event - and working from home. Wednesday and Thursday I was able to drive in myself. The roads to the highways were still pretty patchy, but the highways were okay. Friday, I had Joe drive me to work. I would have worked from home, but it was 4th workday and revenue was closing and it is my job to make sure revenue closes - and closes correctly. Not many people were at work all week.

On the home-front, our pipes froze to the kitchen sink for 2 days. This happened last year, but once we opened the cabinet doors and let some heat in, they were fine. This time they froze even with the cabinet doors open, so I'm thinking that a visit from the plumber may be in our future. It was pretty difficult trying to cook. I had to haul in water from the bathroom in a bowl when I needed it - particularly to clean-up. It was a huge PAIN!!! But, because the weather was so bad, a lot of the area restaurants were closed so we didn't have much choice. Suffice it to say that we've had all the sandwiches we want for a few days. Fortunately on Friday, it had gotten warm enough to un-freeze the pipes and they don't appear to have burst, so we feel pretty lucky about that. Needless to say, when round 3 came in the next Wednesday, we left the sink dripping to avoid another freeze.

Also on the home-front, we were subject to "rolling black-outs" one of the days. This means that for 15-minute increments, areas were targeted for electrical outages in order to save energy and try to avoid a full break-down of the system. Our electricity was out at one point for about 40 minutes and let me tell you that when it's single-digit temperatures, it doesn't take long for the house to cool down!!

DFW is just not prepared for this kind of weather. And, I get it. It's hard to be able to prepare for something that happens - maybe - once a year. But this was the worst weather I ever remember. Less hard to believe - by Saturday the 12th, it was almost 70 degrees.