our lovely bipolar weather

Forget global warming. Our weather is in serious need of some stabilizing medication. Yesterday we were supposed to have a snowstorm – up to six inches – then it was going to turn to freezing rain and there would be a layer of ice over the snow. The snow was supposed to start in the early morning, the ice around 11. So when I got up and it was snowing, I just went right back to bed. Because we’d all agreed that if it was icy, we were SO not coming in.

So about 9:30 I call K, not expecting her to be at work since it is still snowing, and they are still calling for ice around 11. But there she is, so I tell her I really don’t know what I’m going to do. I don’t want to come in and turn right around and leave, and I sure don’t want to have a replay of the last time I got caught in the ice. And had to get a motel room. K is leaving the second it starts looking iffy; J didn’t come in at all.

Well, it snows off and on all morning. It doesn’t really accumulate like you’d think – maybe an inch? Certainly not six. It’s quite cold, though. Like 25. Which is a little odd since both Ray the Not-A-Meteorologist and the National Weather Service say the high will be 33 and the low will be 31. And it’s now 25. Okaaaay. It looks quite threatening, too. I start to go in around 11, and then the snow starts POURING down. So I change my mind. Again. And decide I’m just going to quit thinking about it, and I’m going to enjoy my day off.  Baker B starts wanting coffee from the coffee shop, which is quite close by, so I say, okay, we can go get coffee if we go NOW and we come back FAST because it’s going to start icing any minute!!!

The roads are just fine. Even our usually scary non-plowed deathtrap road is perfectly fine. We’re thinking, ummmm… maybe we shouldn’t have stayed home. But, but, but, it’s going to start icing at any minute!!! And it’s still 25 degrees, so it’s going to be VERY treacherous when it does start!!!!

We hurry. We get coffee. We get a paper. We go back home.

Then at about 2:00, the sun comes out. The snow melts. I look at the deck. It’s nearly 40. FORTY!!! It has gone up like 15 degrees in an hour.

At that point, staying home because of the weather is starting to seem just a tad silly. So Baker B and I go on in. K has already left, J didn’t come in. New Boss is at a conference, but she keeps in touch by calling and emailing us all frantically throughout the day. "Is there anything I need to know????"

Yes! Yes there is! You need to know that you’re going to have a heart attack if you don’t CALM THE HELL DOWN!!!

Well. Anyhow. So the ice never did materialize. Then today it’s just icky and raining and nearly 40 again. Until I come back from lunch, whereupon it starts to snow. And has dropped probably seven degrees in an hour. Now I see it’s gone back up to 35 again. Two hours later. I’m afraid to look outside.  

What is wrong with this weather???????

It’s just another day in Crazyland!

I hear that it will be very cold this weekend, and even colder next week as the Arctic Blast rolls in, straight from Siberia. For some reason we get Accuweather Forecasts via Mozilla, which tells me that right now it’s 32 but the Realfeel is 17. I’m assuming that’s like the windchill. And I can get the weather forecast in either English or Metric. I had no idea Metric was a language.

Oh, well. I’m planning for a nice peaceful weekend, as the upside to this crazyass weather is that I can get out of going to see my parents. I know, I know – I’m a terrible daughter! Who will vacuum? Who will run the Swifter?? Who will do the bills? Well, I’m hoping my father will do it. Being perfectly capable. He just doesn’t believe in doing anything for himself when he can get somebody else to do it for him. Okay, okay, now I know where I get that unattractive trait from. Last time I was there he was telling me how he really appreciated me doing the bills for him. Because he could get my brother do do them, but he’s awfully busy. That would be my brother who lives right beside him. As opposed to the daughter who lives an hour and a half away. And isn’t busy at all. Not one bit. 

Oh, well. At least my parents are still around to complain about. And if I wait another week it will have been long enough since the last visit that I’ll enjoy seeing them.  

Well, time to go. I’m going to take some pictures up to the Art Center and enter the annual photography contest. I’m entering three this year, and not in the Parkway category either. Which apparently needed to be photographs that were recognizable Parkway icons. Like the Viaduct. I’m doing two in Culture and one Landscape. Well, here – this is what I’m entering:

Landscape. Oddly this really isn’t one of my favorites, but I’ve gotten so many positive comments on it that I decided why not. Baker B voted for it out of a number of possibilities, so I’m going with his artistic intuition.

Culture. What’s more indicative of Appalachian Culture that the Yellow Brick Road atop Beech Mountain? It’s an icon!

Well, unless it’s a rusted out old truck in somebody’s front yard. Somebody who is my brother. This is my personal favorite. Wish me luck! I don’t even know what you win, other than fame and glory and getting your photographs hung in the Turchin Center. I think last year there was a minor cash prize involved, and tickets to a film festival, but I didn’t see anything about prizes this year. The downside is that it’s for both amateurs and professionals, so that kind of limits my chances. But, oh, well. At least I’m TRYING!!