Funny Accents, The Mention of SNOW Leads To An Onslaught of Jokes And Laughter For We Southerners…

Not only are Southerns the brunt of many jokes, we are ridiculed for our “funny” accents and the panic we seem to raise when the word snow is mentioned in the forecast.  I have learned over the years that if snow is being predicted and coming via route of Texas, we are in for very dangerously cold temperatures accompanied with snow.  That is exactly what happened Tuesday.  We got our snow, single to minus temps and sadly so very, very sadly several deaths.  An 8 month old baby’s life was lost with the mother in critical condition fighting for hers – the vehicle and driver was not equipped or prepared for icy road conditions.  She lost control and wrecked in the water….Another person living in the deeper part of the South where temps rarely drop to freezing froze to death due to homeless conditions … homes are burning to the ground, water pipes are busting, multiple car wrecks on the highway…. We are just not equipped for such wintry events and when it hits, it hits us HARD.  Some cities aren’t equipped with snowplows and materials to treat the roads for such conditions. We are however, the trucks can’t get to the mountains once the snow starts.  Then we have the worries of black ice and the fact that some of our roads won’t see sunlight until summer!! We don’t have warm parkas for bundling up when working outdoors or for the kids waiting on the school bus.  Half the time people are being advised to make sure kids have a coat on when waiting for the bus-some don’t own a heavy coat just a light jacket or sweatshirt.  I know it’s common sense but that’s how things are around here ya’ll…

This past Tuesday around noon – the snow started falling.  I called Heather at work to tell her the snow was here and that she needed to leave and head home.  She knows that I don’t play around with weather but also knows the importance of her job. Not that they would fire her or anything but working in a medical setting it is difficult to just drop everything and leave because mom called and said it’s snowing.  It is now 2:00 roads are covered, roof tops are covered and Heather still at work. These phone calls continued until about 4:20 she informed me that she was leaving work (one hour earlier than scheduled time to leave).  She works 30-40 minutes from her house and to some that sounds like heaven “living so close to home” but she lives on top of a mountain.  Mountain roads are curvy – in case you don’t realize what curvy mountain roads mean – hairpin turns – where the front of your car meets the back of your car and you are somewhere in the middle….or you meet another car and you have to veer to the side of the road without sliding off only to head down to the bottom….to us that’s normal because we grew up driving those roads and know every stretch of them like the back of our hand.  It is now 5:00 Heather gets her car warmed up, windows defrosted and is heading home.  I’m a nervous wreck and knew it was going to take a while for her to get home. Finally one hour later she makes it home barely,  you see even though we know these roads every curve, bump and blip…..we don’t know how to drive them covered in snow and ice.  Heather is driving in the middle of the road praying for protection.  She tells me at one point she was heading into the guardrail only to proceed down the mountain if the guardrail failed or the car slid the wrong way, some men on the side of the road saw her sliding started yelling trying to tell her what not to do.  It was by the grace of God that she made it home unhurt and no damage to her car.

This morning around 6:30 a.m. I’m taking the dogs out and I see flashing lights then a man walking up the road stopping in front of our house.  After going back inside I walk upstairs look out the window (still dark) but could see the reflection of the street lights in what looked like a lake on the property beside us…I called Robin telling him I think a water pipe has busted.  A few minutes later there are several trucks with flashing lights lined up like a parade of lights up and down our street.  Daylight has reached us and I could see just how much water has/was flooding into the yards and all over the roads.  I get a call from the water company informing us that we have two yes two water mains busted on our street – that means no water for a while.

So you see, we do panic at the mention of snow…. only because we’re from the South and hardly ever have to worry about freezing temps and ice.  Today we’re suppose to get to 50 degrees – we woke up in the “valley” to 10 degrees!!

Ya’ll come back now ya hear 😉

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