Pax, the ridiculously named winter ice storm

Well the ridiculously named snowstorm Pax (means peace) is here. The weather men have been predicting it for days and it is living up to its hype. Cold, wind, snow, sleet, and ice. We've got it all here in GA and to prove it many thousands are without power. I got up early and took a hot shower right away and made coffee. Phew, at least I got that in before the power went out. Next in line for important duties was to post the blog entry for The End Time, and while I was at it I wrote a second one. Phew.

It wasn't long before the temps tumbled and the ticking of ice against the glass appeared. If there were 8 tiny reindeer I'd have jumped aboard and headed for Key West. I thought I left the more severe weather behind me in Maine when I moved here, but that was not to be, at least today. Ah well, we have had mild winters for the last 7 years so I can't really complain.

They say that the worst of the storm is on its way. Over 100,000 Georgians are without power as I write this, and the numbers are rising fast. So when they say the worst is yet to come for the Athens area, I believe it. I have lived through enough ice storms to have developed a healthy hate respect for them.

I've filled my sun shower, drawn water into three jugs totaling I'd estimate about 10 gallons, made food, gotten cat food and litter, batteries for the weather emergency radio, have a hurricane lantern and oil plus candles. I'm physically ready but not emotionally. I dread the tree limbs over the house and the pops and smashes through the night that indicate falling limbs and trees. I dread the ice and the cold...and the worry about pipes freezing. It is 27 degrees but the real feel is 10. I am sure the aging pipes feel every degree of that cold.

But on the plus side, there is no school, I have books, and craft projects I can do, power for now, food, cats to entertain me, and close neighbors. All is well and though Pax is ineptly named, I do fee a peace. I won't say Pax be with you, because it is predicted to barrel its way up the eastern coast of the US, but I hope  you're prepared and do feel a peace - that spring is almost here.

Snow coming today

The big BIG story is that we are going to get snow today. Doom. Armageddon. 1-2 inches. Now, snow here is not unheard of. An elderly friend of mine says that back in the day they used to get a couple of good storms each winter, bringing two to three inches. However there have not been any storms, not even any snow making it to the ground, for the last few years.

This is the third winter I've been in North Georgia and once, in the first winter in 2007, I had to scrape ice off my windshield, using only my credit card to do it. That's about it for wintry precipitation.

So this winter weather system that is already dumping snow in ARK, TN and Miss now heading our way is freaking out the Georgians. The 11 o'clock news led with the ubiquitous news story about the weather, first showing the heavy machinery at the Atlanta airport. "Look!", the news guy said, pointing excitedly through the chain link fence, "these trucks that can be outfitted with sand and salt!" Next, showing radar maps with ominous looking swirls of fast moving clouds traveling over boxed off counties in the path of this coming destruction, the weather forecaster breathlessly described what happens when snow comes down; "Bridges freeze first, so watch out!" Then the news crew went to the grocery store, where people usually go to buy bread and milk and water, the news guy explained. Yes, he actually explained why so many people were at the store putting bread and milk into their carts. "Buggies", sorry, that is the correct terminology down here. And then he repeated the bread-milk-water survival list.

Incredibly he chose the one person in the store to interview who was doubting if not skeptical that anything would even make it to the ground. Rather than interview another person, they just put up a ticker at the bottom of the screen with her name, "Jane Smith" and below that, "Not preparing for storm."

I laughed so hard I almost dumped my laptop of my stomach. It just looked so funny ... "Not preparing for storm." LOL. She said she will believe it when she sees it.

I wonder if she was from Maine.

Today was 67 degrees and by the weekend it will be 70 so the likelihood of any white stuff hanging around is less than zero, but I know the locals get excited at the prospect, they love snow because it's so rare and always sort of a festive event.

Left, my previous domicile in Maine home of car-burying snow. Today, I'm not scared of driving in the wind-driven icy snow. I'm more scared of everybody else who will be out there, newbies to the asphalt realities of black ice.

tornados stink

I'm used to slow moving weather catastrophes. The large, lumbering kind that you can see coming for days at a time. The kind you go out and buy milk and bread for. The type where you glance out the window, looking for the first snowflake or raindrop, and then return to business as usual. Where the weathermen put on sweaters and talk about inches of predicted precipitation, in between sips of coffee and graphics of isobar charts.

That was Maine.

Here in Georgia, the storms are tornados and the warning comes in as little as 8 minutes, as those in the Georgia Dome Friday night will attest. Or Saturday in Madison County, about ten minutes. We stayed glued to the tv all day, watching the progression of tornado watches change to warnings and the actual storms traverse the northern portion of the state, one after another. Many of them, thankfully, scooted below Madison County or north of us, but a few did hit here. At one point the tv guy said that there was circular motion at Transco, 3 miles away. They can go right down to the street level and so when he said that and we looked out and saw the sky darkened and hail hitting the metal roof, we said, well, let's go. We went into the closet, & thought, 'OK, this is it.'

Photos: which would you prefer, the backyard with tree house in snow, or the doom over Atlanta?

I cannot say I am a fan of the tornado as natural catastrophes go. You can't see them coming and they dodge and weave. Blizzards and hurricanes lumber in a line that is well-tracked and they gear up slowly. Tornados are wiry, snaky little buggers and all I can say is, I can't wait for tornado season to be over.