routinely unpredictable

I have lived in the deep South for almost my entire life.  The weather is usually predictable. We like it that way. The summers are hot and humid. The winters are mild. Autumn and Spring are the two seasons most likely to misbehave. It is the volatility of warm weather changing to cool or vice versa. Tornadoes are a fact of life. I actually wrote an entry admitting that I had sent my children out to play football one afternoon during just such a storm. To be fair, I was past the point of screaming and I really needed a few moments to regain at least a little bit of control and I did NOT know that a twister had actually touched down just a few miles from our house. When they ran inside to tell me that they had spotted a funnel cloud across the creek I thought they were doing it so they could slam the door just ONE more time. I told them to go back outside and play.  I sent a change of address card but obviously my "Mother of the Year" award was misrouted. 
As I said we fully expect storms. I can usually "read" the sky. If the weather has been unseasonably warm and the wind starts to blow and the rain clouds appear then we turn on the radio. Most of the time the weather forecasters have a 50/50 shot of being right. It will either rain or it won’t. Now that I think about it, I could do that.
I am a self aware woman. I am very much a "hot house plant". My blood is too thin for really cold weather. My husband complains about how cold my hands and feet are even in July. I know that no matter how many layers I pile on that my fingers and toes are going to be numb if it is cold outside. Summer in Alabama is fine. You can always strip down and stand in front of a fan or park yourself near an air conditioner. 
Imagine my horror when I woke this morning to discover that the weather imp had dumped four inches of hideous white powder all over the state! Now if they even say "sleet" or so much as think "snow" the roads are closed. We just don’t have need of all that road clearing equipment often enough to justify the cost. This was our first legitimate snowfall since 1997. 
I held my breath until my husband arrived home from the night shift at the plant. The last time he had to drive in snow/ice he took out a natural gas line with his truck. (Granted he was only on the road because our oldest son was lacking the intelligence to stay off the road and had wrecked his car. Me, being a constant candidate for "Mother of the Year", insisted that my husband leave a warm bed and the safety of his house to go and fetch MY child. Ever notice how when they do something slightly stupid you suddenly have sole ownership of said offspring?)
Once all of my chickens were home and safe I tried to ignore the rapidly falling flakes. My children (I am noticing a disturbing trend when it comes to mental lapses) were pleading to go out and play. They were outside long enough to become thoroughly soaked and chilled to the bone when they noticed that the sun had decided to make an appearance.  They were totally disgusted while I was doing my best not to appear too giddy in my relief. The last thing we want is for the schools to be closed. When you are just barely hanging on to your sanity that would be enough to have you hiding in the closet with a flashlight.
By mid-afternoon almost every trace of it was gone. Now we just have to deal with a muddy soggy mess of a yard after the heavy downpours of the past week. I’ll take it. We have had drought conditions for the last couple of years so it was nice to see the creek filled to overflowing and moving fast. I’m very grateful that the snow came and went so quickly and that we didn’t lose power. I still have a semi-permanent twitch from the last little "dusting" when we lost electricity for a week.
If there is an unexplained disturbance in the cosmos tomorrow morning just ignore it. That will be me, throwing a fit because the schools are closed. This too shall pass. But I have a corner of the closet ready just in case.