Thundersnow
Yesterday when getting ready to leave for work, I couldn’t find the little card that lets me into the underground parking garage. Luckily, when I arrived, another employee was arriving at the same time, so we used her card to let me in. On the way out, I borrowed the receptionist’s card, then had to stop on the way out to give it back to her. Running from the car to the front door, the snow was harsh and the wind whipped. There was a loud crash and a flash of lightening. Now I know that made this storm a "thundersnow." Never heard of it. After dropping off the card, I raced back to the car, unable to look up because of the sharp pellets of snow (bordering on hail) that were pelting me. When I threw the door of my car open, I whacked myself in the boob. OUCH!
The ride home was beyond treacherous. Lots of little accidents, and my "bumper"had a couple of chances to live up to its name. An ambulance went by, then I heard it honking – A LOT! And then I realized that in fact, there was another ambulance behind me honking, but since I couldn’t see out the back or sides of my car, I didn’t know that. I actually took a little phone video of that scenario since we were going to slow and noone was in front of me.
I felt REALLY bad for several people who were coming off the Arborway on to Centre Street west in JP. It was a long slow hill, and there were several cars spinning their wheels at the top of it, so hundreds of cars were stopped behind it. People all along the journey were getting out of their cars at stoplight – and just in the road – to remove snow from their cars. I think a few had malfunctioning windshield wipers, while others had the problem I was starting to have. The wipers removed snow from the from windshield, but there were large mountains of snow forming on the hoods of the cars, and they were getting so high that it was beginning to obscure the view of the road ahead. And all along, there was thunder and lightening and only about 20 feet of visibility.
I know how to drive in snow from my life in Oberlin and Bloomington, but I’m a little out of practice. The truth is, I don’t even have a scraper anymore. I had one that broke right before I moved away from Bloomington, but in Memphis, I never had cause to replace it. I think it’s time for a walk up to Centre Street for a new one.
I’m actually just really excited to get out with my camera. Now that the streets are plowed and the sun is out (although not melty out!) it’s just beautiful, and it’s a Saturday. Pretty good timing for a thundersnow.
