Dear Old Man Winter: B is for Bite Me!


FlyingBInTheRain_8172, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

OK, so I must admit. It’s COLD outside. In Austin, we’ve had this weird freezing rain, sleet, ice-like crap falling all over the place. It’s happened for two days now. First last Friday and now today. For two entire days now, it’s been snowing, iced up, sleeting, whatever you call it.

Now, I know you folks up north are probably saying things like “Yeah, yeah, cry me a river!” since we here in Austin seldom get winter. But, it’s very bad here. You see, we just don’t *do* winter in these parts. We don’t have sleds, mittens, warm kettles full of hot cocoa. Nope. We’ve got none of that. We have shorts and sleeveless T-shirts. What in the heck am I supposed to do with a sleeveless T-shirt when it’s 29 degrees outside?!? Get my point? See where this is going? It’s supposed to be a WARM climate and, frankly, we just don’t understand all of this *winter* crap, not to mention our roads, why, they just can’t take it.

You see the roads here are hilly, or at least a bit more sloped then what you are used to back east or even in other parts. We have slopes and ridges and odd medians and big hills and places where, once the road ices up, you just can’t get to. Things get blocked off, people grow impatient and crashes start to happen. Lots and lots of crashes, in fact, Friday alone, there were over 200 crashes in Austin. Today, I heard on the news how there was a crash involving a school bus and two of Austin’s police cruisers were involved in wrecks.

One of the main roads you might take when traveling through Austin is Interstate 35, or I-35 as the locals like to call it. It has these big fly-overs and places that just don’t do well at all with ice. Today, it was deemed “impassible” due to the ice. For a brief period of time, it was completely closed today in a special ceremony. You see, it’s been renamed “Ice-Thirty Five” on account of all the sleet we’ve been having. Mopac, another main highway through the city which is usually packed (hence its nickname: MoPacked) was like a skating rink, not to mention completely empty. Void of traffic because none dare venture out into the land of many crashes.

It’s the strangest of conditions, really, since everything is covered in ice and yet nobody really remembers it raining. Not to mention this sleet stuff is doing nothing to help fill up our lakes and rid Austin of its pesky drought conditions. No, it’s not helping with that, this crappy sleet is, rather it’s just muddling up our traffic. Ugh! I really hate this crap. honest, I do.

Now I know I’ve been complaining a lot. “I’m sick!” “It’s sleeting!” Yada yada. But, this really is the current state of affairs here in River City. Bad allergies gave way to the flu which is turn morphed into sleet covered broken dreams. I really hate this winter and I know that, in just a few months, I’ll be complaining how it’s too hot around these parts. I know, I sound like a cross between a broken record and a complaint machine, but there you have it. It’s my blog and I’ll rant if I want to. There’s just too much winter for me to take this quietly. I know this is a season and we’re all supposed to get this “winter” stuff and all, but, man, it’s killing me! And, I know I’ll get little sympathy from folks back east who have it worse, much worse, than I but I can still complain, can’t I?

Old man winter, if you would, please turn it down a notch or two, OK? We’re like all collectively kind of getting sick of you. (Enough said!)

Until next time…

1 Comment

  1. Great Grandma Lin
    Author
    January 29, 2014 / 2:06 pm

    ah the trials of life…lol!

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