Here Comes The Ice...

In the middle of the night I heard this tapping at my windows, then a skittering sound across the glass.  I woke to figure out it was sleet, the beginnings of a mess.  We're supposed to get an Ice Storm here in OK today. I'm not a fan of the ice, it doesn't really scare me like some people, but I'm still not a fan.  

For those of you that just get snow, snow is far easier to deal with than ice, which is mostly what we get around these parts.  Snow can compact and actually give some traction.  Ice just leads to idiots trying to drive their cars like they're in some auto version of Skating With The Stars or the ice chapter of Top Gear.  Take your choice, neither one is pretty.

Ice demands respect.  If you can't give ice its due, then stay off of it.  Ice can send a well equipped vehicle, with a seasoned driver plummeting into a ditch.  What do think it can do to you & your vehicle?  For a lot of us, that part is avoidable, we just hunker down & stay in our homes.  That doesn't mean we're out of the icy woods though.

No, there are plenty of ways that the ice will still mess with you. Can you open your door or is it frozen shut?  Did your pipes freeze?  Do you still have power?  These are just a few of the bad things that happen in an ice storm.  Imagine being stranded out on an ice covered highway unable to get home.  Ice can leave you totally stranded; no power, no telephone, no way to get to or do anything.

If we are lucky, the ice will turn to snow.  Snow is far less problematic & usually prettier.  Icicles are pretty, you say.  You think those frozen spikes are pretty?  Ice is dangerous.  It can fall off of buildings in chunks or spikes, it can black ice a highway, it break tree limbs that fall through your roof.  I doubt there is little ice can't do if it gets chance.  Ever see a glacier?  


Give the frozen stuff it's due, stay inside if you can, but just play it safe with ice or you might end up like Dr. Yang, here...