Diary of an ice storm

Ice storm 2023 hit Dallas like a giant water balloon filled with... well... ice.  I left work early on Monday afternoon to pick up the dog from daycare, with the rain immediately turning to ice upon hitting my windshield.  By the time I walked Bowie later that afternoon, the ice pellets coming down were freezing on to the sidewalk.  It was cute and made fun little crunching sounds under my sneaker and I was blissfully unaware of the chaos that was to come.  Looking at the Apple weather forecast then, we were expected to get snow on Tuesday, snow on Wednesday with everything finally starting to melt come Thursday.  Of course, Bryan left for work that morning and wasn't expected back until Friday.  The reliability factor of Bryan being out of town during a storm is pretty much 100.  You'd think with those odds, he would be a lottery winner.

I had not stocked up on food prior to the storm but luckily, I had made a batch of homemade chicken pho on Sunday night, cooking up twice the amount of chicken required.  (Side note: homemade chicken pho was very tasty and a lot easier than I thought it would be.)  I am still eating said chicken four days later so it was both a good / bad decision.  Otherwise yours truly would have subsisted on a diet of cheese, crackers, and Girl Scout cookies (I've already devoured one box of Thin Mints and just cracked the Samoas today).  Luckily I was stocked up on beer and wine because if not,  things would have gotten really desperate.

On the first day of the real snow / ice storm, Bowie and I tramped our way through the neighborhood in the bitter cold before I started work from the home office.  It was snowing the entire time and I could watch it slowly accumulate and gather in my prior footprints.  I've decided that the first day of snow is always the best day of snow.  It's a novelty, you don't feel like you have cabin fever yet, and everything is clean and quiet.  Everything was lovely - the dog liked running in the cold weather and I liked watching the birds gather at the bird feeder outside my window.

On day two of the ice storm, things started turning dark.  The snow / sleet had started to form a sheet of ice over the roads and every other available surface and walking the dog was treacherous.  Bowie body slammed into a tree when he forgot about the ice and tried to chase a squirrel.  I fell on my butt in front of a neighbor's house when I stepped on what I thought would be a snow patch but was instead snow covered in ice.  Our walks around the neighborhood took twice as long as I was spending half of the time trying to recover my balance.  It's one way of working up a sweat.  I also dug my truck out from under the layers of ice and snow and took it for a spin around the neighborhood, testing how the 4WD holds up to the ice (pretty good and I feel fairly confident in my stopping ability).


On day three because we had been getting rain nonstop for 24 hours, everything was finally starting to melt and we could see an end to the madness.  The roads looked more or less clear.  However, check out this tree in front of my neighbor's house.  The weight of the ice tore it in half.  Luckily it didn't fall down on the house or the car but geez.  It makes me glad that our live oaks sit closer to the road and away from the house.  The birds hadn't been back to the feeder and the ice had started tearing up the dog's feet.  By the end of the day, the roads were clear enough for me to make it to the barn and do a light hack.  I also walked the dog later that evening without danger of falling (again).

Never fear Texans, we'll be inching toward 70 degrees by Monday.  Insert huge eye roll here.  I hope you all have been staying warm wherever you are and have a good weekend!

Comments

  1. Yuck!! I was talking to my BFF on Tuesday. She lives in San Antonio and was explaining to me exactly what an ice storm was. I'll take my swampy heat and humidity any day.

    Glad you and the pup and the ponies made it through okay!

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    1. It did kill all the mosquitoes - so there's that!

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  2. Ugh glad you made it thru basically unscathed !! Living in Maryland , we get proper snow storms, but also the ice storms too. Farther north they usually just get the snow with less ice, but idk sometimes I think the ice is worse!

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    1. It was 70 on Sunday so everything is now melted and mucky - oh the joy

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  3. Oh that sounds awful. We have had barely a sprinkle of snow and until this weekend our temperatures have also been quite mild.

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    1. That's nice! I hope that holds up for y'all

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  4. That sounds wild. And so dramatic within that week swing. Glad it's warming a bit!

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  5. Oh wow! That tree in your neighbour's lot...cray cray! Glad to hear you guys stayed warm and safe...well, aside from falling on your butt but I feel like that's tradition everywhere it snows/ices:P

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    1. I got some ice cleats so hopefully no more falling!

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