Earlier in the evening, I got a text message from my friend Anna Banana, and she told me that it was dumping snow outside. Then the word got out. As people would come in, they'd all be saying stuff like Man, you wouldn't believe how hard it's snowing outside! Better get to the store and stock up before the rest of the town wakes up! There's already two inches of snow on the ground up on Horizon Ridge!
I didn't really believe much of it--people who live in the desert tend to exaggerate bad weather, but when I got tapped out to go home, every single dealer coming in for the next shift was telling us It's getting pretty bad out there--be careful!
I took it with a grain of salt and shuffled off to the parking garage. But when I stepped off of the elevator, I could not believe my eyes. Big, heavy, wet snowflakes were just pounding the landscape. Of course the roads were just wet, like during a rainstorm, because they are warmer than the surrounding ground, but the roof of the parking garage was nice and cold and it was a big slushy mess! Every vehicle up there had a new quarter-inch thick blanket of freshly fallen snow. And of course I no longer own an ice scraper, but snow hadn't frozen, so the windshield wipers took care of it.
But it was a slippery mess coming down that ramp, and I put Sid into low gear, hoping no jackass would be parked at the bottom, because once I turned the corner, there was no turning back. Luckily everyone was out of the way, and I slid down the hill and shot out of the garage exit like a fat kid on an innertube hitting the pool at the bottom of a waterslide.
Of course I had the Christmas music playing on the drive home, and with no other traffic on the road and the huge snowflakes coming down all around me, the high beams made it look like I was traveling just fast enough to get into hyperspace.
It's only about six miles from work to my house, but it was amazing. The snow in Henderson was really hard, but the closer I got to my house, the accumulation had thinned out a bit. I stopped by Wayne Newton's house to look at all the decorations and lights, wishing I'd had my camera with me. But no such luck. It was very pretty though.
When I got home, I could tell my neighborhood hadn't been hit as hard, but it seemed like it was coming our way--it was snowing harder here at the house than at work. So I ran in and got my camera to snap a few quick pictures before I turned into a very large popsicle.
This is the truck after I made the ten minute drive home and the engine had warmed up. Some of the original accumulation had melted off, but you get the idea. Oh, and do you notice how hard it was snowing when I snapped this photo? Global warming, my ass.
Here's another view--and you can see how little snow there was on my roommates car, which had been parked at the house all night. But there's gonna be a lot more there when he gets up--it's coming down like a son-of-a-gun right at this moment.
I'm guessing that it'll all be melted off before noon, but still, it's very pretty out here right at this moment, and the newly fallen snow has a way of muting most of the sounds one normally hears around here, so it's very peaceful.
Too bad it couldn't happen again in a week.
Mikey
No comments:
Post a Comment