Snow and Ice!

As most of you probably heard on the news, Kentucky was deluged with snow and ice this past week. The little town of Walton, where we now reside, in just two days received 10 inches of snow and 1 ½ inches of ice! Driving conditions were treacherous even for the locals! We have discovered that this area has a 3 level snow emergency alert. Level 1: Drive with caution, Level 2: Don’t go out unless necessary, Level 3: If you DO drive, you might get ticketed! Tuesday was a Level 2 but Wednesday went to a Level 3 in many areas.

Rodney did drive to work everyday but they let them go home very early on Wednesday because of the Level 3 alert. He came home just in time to help us chip the ice away from the drive. Tuesday, for two grueling hours, we shoveled 6 inches of snow off the driveway. But then Tuesday night, the mixed snow/rain/sleet deposited a thick crust of ice on the drive and on all the snow on the ground. A very fast-moving but heavy snow flurry hit on Wednesday morning and added another 4 inches of snow on top of that ice. Talk about slick conditions! I still have to be VERY careful just walking on my sidewalk out to my car…I skate half the way!

It is amazing how diligent the road crews are trying to keep the roads passable though. Snow plows are everywhere and salt is constantly being replenished on the roads. But with ice this thick and persistent even the snow plows were having trouble. I saw on the news that in the city of Cincinnati, road crews were pulling out the “strong stuff” – beet juice! They were laying down streams of beet juice on the Cincy streets. They swore by it; said it should do the trick!

Some other “lessons” this warm-weather, Georgia girl learned this week:

• Shoveling snow (and especially ice!) off a driveway is great aerobic exercise.
• And it is necessary, otherwise your drive turns into a skating rink that your car cannot get up.
• I now understand why and appreciate why driveways are so short here
• The trash crew does not come on a Level 2 or 3 snow day
• The trash crew cannot SEE your trash under the snow when they DO come if you put it out too early *sigh*
• The mail lady also does not come on Level 2 or 3 snow day
• She will also not deliver your mail until you shovel her a path to your mailbox
• Evidently it is a requirement to purchase a four-wheeler to play with and get around for snow days
• The police don’t mind if you ride these out on the road; the police are out there with their kids pulling their sleds
• There is a southern windshield wiper fluid and a northern version (northern version goes down to -25 degrees not just 20 degrees)
• Problems will arise if you DON’T use the northern version
• You NEED that windshield wiper fluid after a snow (salt from the road makes your windshield opaque quickly!)
• It takes 2 people with 2 wooden blocks over 30 minutes to chip an ice-encrusted van out enough to drive it
• Snow and ice doesn’t melt if the temperature never goes above freezing (“what the heck….the snow was always gone a day or two later in GA!”

Ah well, who knows what other lessons are waiting for us here! I just pray our electricity doesn’t go out until we have a chance to get a woodstove. Otherwise we are going to reinstitute the “family bed” to keep warm!