Snowbound and Down

While the winter of 2010/2011 was initially going to be remembered in Atlanta as the one with a White Christmas, it will now be remembered for the Blizzard of 2011. The media's calling it "SnowPocalypse."

Starting last evening, about 5 to 6 inches of snow fell overnight, a staggering amount for this southern city. But in the morning, the show turned to freezing rain and sleet, covering all of the fresh snow with a crust of ice.

The roads are impassable. Due to the rarity of snow events, the City of Atlanta doesn't even own a snowplow - their strategy is to just encourage everybody to stay off the roads the next morning and wait for it all to melt. That usually takes about 24 hours, but apparently not this year. The sun never came out today and temperatures did not get much above the mid 30s. The crust of ice is keeping everything in place, and not only is it not supposed to get any warmer later this week, but more freezing rain is forecast for tonight and again on Thursday. Things aren't expected to finally thaw out until at least Saturday.

So I'm basically housebound and needless to say, I didn't go to work today. I've cleared the snow off of my car, but my driveway is still an unnavigable sheet of ice. Even if I were to get down the steep hill from my house to the road, I'd still have to drive up out of a valley to the main streets before I can access the highways.

I'm fine, though - the storm was widely forecast and I stocked up on food (rice and fruit) before the snow began. I've attempted to accomplish some small amount of business over the telephone and by email, and have nothing too pressing at work (besides, everyone else is basically snowbound as well).

Monday Night Zazen has been cancelled for the evening. I'm free tonight to watch Auburn and Oregon play for the national football championship on television.

My two cats have very different reactions to the snow. Eliot, an orange tabby, wants nothing to do with it and is staying inside, but Izzy, a grey-and-white shorthair, loved romping through the snow before it glazed over, and still wants to be out in it as much as he can.

After taking a two-week vacation off from work (one week at home and one in New England), I suddenly find myself on an unexpected snow holiday, with no clear end in sight.

Things could be a lot worse.