Waking Up to Snow

Athens Snow 01-24-2013The world was white when I looked out my Athens hotel room window this morning. I didn’t see the official reading, but I’m going to guess we got less than half an inch. It was a very dry snow. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

Van was covered

Athens Snow 01-24-2013

My van had an impressive covering of snow in the parking lot. The desk clerk and I explained to Friend Jan how to use a credit card to clean the ice off your windshield if you don’t have a scraper. (No, Jan, you don’t use the credit card to PAY someone to do it for you…)

Fortunately for her, the snow was so dry that the windshield wipers swiped it right off.

We didn’t make it to Cape Thursday night. We stopped at too many neat places along the way. My brain is too fried to try to post them tonight. You’ll see them in the days to come.

Snow is Like Cold Sand

Jan Norris Athens breakfast 01-23-2013I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. After doing a dry run at the Athens County Historical Society and Museum, I decided to rework my presentation to include more photos taken in Athens County.

I was feeling a bit sleepy (make that REALLY sleepy) around 2 a.m., so I thought I set the alarm on my cellphone for a 20-minute nap. I set it all right, but failed to hit the DONE button. I woke up  with a start at 4 a.m., saw the time, saw the phone alarm, then decided I was still too tired to do anything. I set the alarm for 7:30 and hit SAVE and DONE.

After getting the show put together, Friend Jan Norris and I headed downtown for breakfast. Excellent food. Jan had eggs, two sausage patties, hashbrowns, toast and an order of pancakes (which she pronounced the best she had ever eaten). “I heard that you’re supposed to eat lots of carbs when it’s cold,” she justified.

Presentation went well

I had a good audience for my photos of Southern Ohio and the years of protests at Ohio University. There’s a good chance that I’ll be working with the group for quite awhile. (You can click on the photos to make them larger, by the way.)

An icicle!

Jan Norris Athens OH sports icicle 01-23-2013_0667Jan was excited to see an icicle hanging above us. I tried to explain how guys at Scott Quadrangle, the dorm I lived in, would suspend a thin wire out a second or third floor window, then drip water down it. Layers and layers of ice would build up until the ice spear would be 20 or 30 feet long and a foot or more thick at the top.

The university, not looking forward to writing a “Dear Mom and Dad, Your child took part in an innovative experiment to determine just how long an icicle can grow before breaking off, ” letter, put an end to the practice.

Starting to find the style

Jan Norris Athens OH 01-23-2013_0671She was looking a little less like a rainbow-covered Michelin Man today. [Wife Lila suggests that I clarify that the Michelin Man look is from all of the layers of clothing, not the natural Jan. Of course, Wife Lila hasn’t seen the size of those breakfasts….]

She got cold AND snow

Athens snow 1-23-2013Jan went roaming around town while I was wrapping up at the museum. She came back to say that it was snowing. Indeed, it WAS. A fine dusting of dry snow that didn’t look like it was going to amount to much.

We made arrangements to meet OU friends Terry and Lyntha Eiler for dinner, then drove around to find the apartments Wife Lila and I lived in when we were newlyweds. We found one for sure, and maybe a second one. It looked “almost” right, but I couldn’t be positive. By this time, the ground was turning white and some of the intersections were getting slippery.

We had a great dinner (sure wish I had left off the onions), then walked outside to see the sidewalks covered and quite a bit on the roads where the cars hadn’t worn it off. On the way back to the motel, we passed a car that had slipped off onto the median.

We head toward Cape Thursday if we don’t see bad weather rushing at us. I told her she’ll have a chance to scrape ice off the windshield in the morning. I mean, after all, she wants the WHOLE cold weather experience, right?

 

 

Athens County Historical Society

Jessica Cyders - Curator Athens Historican Societ and Museum 01-22-2013Friend Jan Norris and I spent the day at the Athens County Historical Society and Museum meeting with curator Jessica Cyders and other folks. They are a great bunch of folks who made me feel very welcome and very flattered.

It’s fun to see people get excited about small details that help them fill in holes in the area’s history. It looks like my Ohio era photos could end up with the society when I go toes-up.

I had forgotten how hilly Athens is. If Norris stayed here a week, she’d have the Athens Calves that everybody develops here. I wish I had taken a photo of her in her many layers today. “Is there any color in the rainbow that you’re NOT wearing?” I asked her. If her lips hadn’t been frozen together, I’m sure she would have come up with a smart reply.

Jan may get to see snow falling

Weather could be interesting. The first forecast I saw this morning showed Cape getting up to five inches of snow on Thursday and Athens getting the same amount on Friday. Both have been revised downward, but the official word from the weather service is “a fast moving winter storm system is forecast to race across the quad state region Thursday night and depart Friday morning. The latest available forecast model guidance suggests while it is still too early to pinpoint exact amounts and locations… it continues to look like at least some accumulation of snow… ice… and sleet is expected with this system.

Cold: A Matter of Degree(s)

Jan Norris and Mary Jo FabricsRoad trip Day Two checked off some boxes:

Friend Jan wanted to go to to Mary Jo Fabrics in Gastonia, NC. Done.

She got to see snow

Jan Norris and snowNorris wanted to see snow. She got to see snow going through the West Virginia mountains. This area got about a foot-and-a-half of snow in the last week or so. I would like to have taken a better photo, but my model was whining and running inside.

She wanted to feel cold air

Athens OH weatherShe wanted to experience cold. She got to feel minus 3-degree wind chill when we pulled into Athens around midnight. I have to admit the 10-16 mph cut right through you.

From now on, “cold” will be when she turns the AC down to 65.

Photo gallery of Day Two

Here some other photos of the day that I’m too sleepy to write about. Click on any photo to make it larger, then click on the left or right side of the image to move through the gallery.