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Can You Hear Me Now?

Friday, January 12, 2007

Is It Summer Yet?

There’s nothing like gliding across a smooth rink and hearing the sound of the ice as it is cut by the sharp blades. To feel the cool air flowing by as you slide forward and back. There is this sense of grace and continual movement and momentum. Some speed by and others slowly glide and slide in tandem to the rhythm created by the sounds and the frozen atmosphere...

That’s all fine and good and sometimes even borderline fun (for a few hours) in an enclosed ice-skating rink…but when Oklahoma Highways are ice-laden and cars (including mine) are sliding and gliding to and fro…well that’s a WHOLE other thing!

Yep…it’s icing (notice I didn't say SNOWING?) even now. I can hear the ice hitting the giant glass window I will soon vacate. It is falling and sticking and ice is covering the side roads and even beginning to cover the highway. The windshields are covered, the doors will be frozen shut on our cars and I didn’t even wear a coat…silly Kim!

I’ve got 2 more hours till it’s time to hear home and I’m dreading it already! We had the foresight to grocery shop last night and after almost 2 hours at Wal-mart, which was cleared as if war was imminent, we found a few weekly staples and headed home. I’ve NEVER seen anything like it in my LONG life! The lines were worse than the day after Thanksgiving. The place was PACKED out!

I assume people are concerned because of the other El Nina’ activity, west…
and east of our little prairie protection this year. If only we still had schooners and horses, it wouldn’t seem nearly so daunting.

I may just leave a bit early, seeing as how I’m only here a couple more days anyway and really have little left to offer, in terms of new work. Honestly, I just want to go home and cover my head till summer arrives!

I’ll try to capture some ice-covered pictures with my new camera and post later on this afternoon.

Have an ice-free Friday and drive safe!

13 comments:

Dawn said...

I just heard about this from my brother this morning. I can remember following down on my back the first time I left my dorm and discovered the world had turned into an ice rink. I had never lived anyplace before that did this! And I have never since. It is a terrible phenomenon.

Thanks for your feedback on our story. It was quite a journey, and it had been very good for us to do this - we're learning things about each other that we never talked about before.

someone else said...

I remember those ice storms. They are so treacherous. I hope you get to go home soon where it's safe. I've been wondering how long before summer, too.

Anonymous said...

That sounds oh-so-fun. Yeah. That's what our grocery stores looked like a couple of weeks ago when our blizzard(s) hit. You'd have thought the world was coming to an end!!

Drive home carefully. I've never experienced an ice storm. Doesn't sound fun!

Sally said...

Yuk sounds horrible- drive home safely- will be praying for that trip.

Anonymous said...

I just found your blog from Shalee but I laughed at your "icing" comment...I moved to OKC 5 months ago from Florida so this is a first for me. I had to drive home from work in it and I was freaking out the whole way! I was hoping people would see the Florida license plates and stay the heck away from me. Oh geez I will NOT be going back out in this and I have decided I will burn the furniture if I run out of firewood. I thought preparing for a hurricane was rough;-)

Anonymous said...

Wow! What kind of weather do you guys get there?? Altho..to be honest, I had to laugh alitte, because we knew it was going to snow out here ( I live in British Columbia)..and so the night before I went to Walmart too, and got all my shopping done, becuase I KNEW I was not going to be driving for the next couple of days. Only thing, in our area, we were also having a black out in parts of the city, so there was absolutely no one in Walmart! Gofigure! Anwyays..I don't like driving in the snow - even tho we spent 7 years in the Yukon! Give me sunny weather, and nice dry roads - then I'm a happy camper!

Anonymous said...

Hate to tell ya this, girl, but it IS summer here. It was in the 60's today. We haven't had winter YET! It wouldn't be so bad, but you gotta know that it WILL come and we will end up with a very late Spring

Dawn said...

So did the ice storm materialize? Last I heard from my brother, it hadn't, but just more slush than anything. Hope not!

I finally finished my last installment on the anorexia journey - a really positive experience for us - the writing, not the experiencing!

Farmgirl Cyn said...

Hope all went well, Kim, and you are able to snuggle down this weekend! We've got much colder weather coming our way, too, with accumulations by Monday.

Diane Viere said...

Winter just now really hit Minnesota--and I'm already complaining...with you....."where's summer!" I don't know if I will make it through, yet, another winter--even a short one!

look forward to seeing your photos though. (Somehow, seeing photos of winter are so beautiful when the practicality of living through winter is not!)

Diane

Anonymous said...

From the news reports, looks like OK was hit pretty bad! I pray you had a safe and warm weekend at home, hopefully with electricity. It hit us on Saturday morning and we've been "locked in" ever since. Hopefully we will get a reprieve tomorrow.

Be safe and stay warm!

Anonymous said...

Oooooh!! Brrrrrr - sounds cold!! Glad I am still warm and summery here!

Anonymous said...

Ice...it was 76 degrees here yesterday. It doesn't seem like winter. But I'm with you, if I'm going to have winter weather, I prefer snow. Hope things aren't so icy there today