Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas Day and Snowy Roads

Although we did not see family or friends, this has been a good Christmas – very peaceful. Staying home, being with Toby, and not doing much of anything has just been relaxing. Knowing that my family was all snug and safe was good too.

Yesterday dawned bright and white. It looked warm outside, but the weather was still pretty cold. Toby spent part of the day clearing off the carport and places in the barn where snow blew. The snow definitely blew – it blew into the oddest nooks and crannies. Late in the afternoon, we ventured out to feed the neighbors animals while they are away. Our little county road was not too bad, so we decided to venture on into Duncan to see the GGs. Hwy 7 was not too bad – mostly clear except where guardrails kept the wind from blowing the snow off the road. What snow was on the road, was thick, but slushy – nothing that a snowplow couldn’t fix. We saw some folks sledding on the overpasses - an Okie thang for sure. It reminded us of Jesse sledding on the pond dam the first winter we lived here. It was a pretty steep dam. She said she went "dam fast' and it was "dam scary." Then there was the time she was babysitting some kids and took them sledding on another pond dam. The snow melted quickly and they continued to sled on the red mud. Reason no. 24 to marry Jesse: She is not afraid to get dirty.

As we got closer to Duncan, we were wondering why Duncan had not done better with their roads. I guess we aren’t in NM anymore. OK apparently does not have the plows and resources that snowier states have or possibly Duncan was not a priority. We heard on the news that Wichita Falls had a fleet of snowplows come from Amarillo all the way to WF plowing as they came. Once they go to WF, they veered off and plowed other main roads. But the hwy dept had trouble clearing I-44 due to the abandoned vehicles. We saw at least three abandoned vehicles on our way to Duncan. The main road in Duncan was okay, but the side roads were difficult. It was not the snow; it was the crazy drivers that were scary. We saw some people doing some very dumb things - things that made our jaws drop – it was enough to make us head home and stay put. We did get to see the GGs and watch them open their presents. I wish I had taken a camera. Bo and the GGs had built a huge snow fort in their front yard. My DIL said that she had a hard time getting Bo to come in from playing in the snow. GBN2 did not do so well in the big snowball fight, but I think they all enjoyed the fine day and snow. GBN1 has her first loose tooth and she is proud of it.

We may venture out again today – to Wal-Mart we will go. It is suppose to warm up to 42 - whew! A regular heat wave!

6 comments:

Buck said...

Sounds like a FINE Christmas to me, except for the scary-driver bits. We all could do without those.

Bob said...

Christmas morning we enjoyed watching the granddaughter help us old people open our presents. Then we feasted on ham.

It was sometime toward the end of the meal that the newlyweds mentioned they needed to leave first thing in the morning for their trip to see the other in-laws in California. I advised (with all the snow in US287) I20 was definitely the better route--they could jog north to I40 between Tucson and Phoenix, I reasoned.

Then it came to light that they needed to go back through Fort Sill to pick up stuff they were taking to the in-laws. So we strongly urged them to head out just as soon as they could. We loaded them down with rock salt, cat litter and a shovel, then sent them on their way. Two hours later they call from Bowie to report the progress was slow. They'd seen snow plows, but they were all heading southeast toward Fort Worth, so James and his bride were slogging along at 5 mph in the ruts of the cars ahead.

The usual three-hour drive ended up being a seven-plus-hour ordeal. I told James: "I'm so relieved you made it. After you left, I check the TxDOT website and they showed I44 was still closed." He said, "Yeah, we had to drive around the 'ROAD CLOSED' barriers."

Anyway, they called this morning (as they were crossing the Oklahoma border into the Panhandle) with the news that the roads west of Lawton were much better.

Mike said...

At least the people in your neck of the woods have an excuse for driving poorly in winter weather...they don't get it very often. The amount of people in the Midwest (NE/IA/KS region) who lack winter driving skills never ceased to amaze me. Of course, the fact that there are a considerable amount of people in ALASKA who apparently also lack these skills is really the icing on the cake. The best part is that not only are there people who drive way too fast for the conditions, but there are just as many (if not more) people who drive like chicken littles when the conditions don't warrant it. If the flow of traffic is going 45-50 mph without any trouble, chicken little putting along in her little Nissan Stanza (inside joke from the Venture Bros.) doing 25 on the interstate is far more likely than anything else to make me end up in the ditch when I have to slam on the brakes to avoid rear-ending her.

"Reason no. 24 to marry Jesse: She is not afraid to get dirty."

Not touching that one with a 10 foot pole...

However, re: your comment from a couple of posts down, I am shocked--SHOCKED--that you would engineer such a scheme and feel horribly taken advantage of. :-p

Dave (aka Buckskins Rule) said...

It never ceases to amaze me that some people think that driving in the snow is no different than driving on a dry road. Some get really stupid.

When we had our big snow last year, the nice part was, that after two days, the folks who couldn't drive in it had either left their car in a ditch, or realized they needed to stay home. Made for a lot less traffic on my commute.

Glad to hear everyone is safe and sound.

Bag Blog said...

Bob, I have heard similar stories about travel. My sister in Amarillo said the weather there was not bad. I'm glad your family got to where they were going safely.

BR, Snows in NM was not nearly like this mess. Maybe the snow was dryer. Maybe the roads were better taken care of. We went to town today and it is still bad.


Buck, The only thing that would have been better this Christmas would have been pork enchiladas. But we did have some breakfast burritos that were pretty good.

Mike, Mothers are masterminds - didn't you know that?

Jo Castillo said...

Sounds like a pretty good day, minus the drivers! You comment at the end about eating pork enchiladas made me hungry yet again! Sigh........ We have some of your cold tonight it is 35 already. Cold for here!