RTT

Winter Olympics are both dazzling and puzzling. Those downhill skiers are some athletes. They go faster and I could ever imagine and they make it look easy. The resort villages hosting the events look absolutely enchanting. But I need to understand more about this sport known as curling. I’m sure one of the commentators will provide the background information I am seeking to explain why it is an Olympic event. For now, it simply puzzles me.

And then there’s Bob Costas’ shirt. Seriously, I think I’m tripping. Tiny little stripes two nights in a row. Doesn’t translate well on television. Looks like an optical illusion.

The final rounds of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show was broadcast last night, first night of a two-night event. I love WKC, primarily because of the good basic facts they provide when introducing each breed of dog. The origin of the breed, the dog’s level of energy and temperament as a member of a human family.

But one of the play-by-play broadcasters continues to refer to the competition as a “sport.” Now this is puzzling to me too. The Olympics definitely fall into the sports category. But the dog show? Not so much. The closest thing I can come up with would be a pageant. And I mean that in a good way, sort of like a scholarship competition.

I’ll be tuning in again tonight to see Best in Show and check out Bob Costas’ wardrobe selection.

Please stand by

Please stand by. Your regularly scheduled winter will resume in a moment.

Yeah, I know we haven’t gotten much (ok, any) real effects of winter here in the Texas gulf coast, but you know why? Because it’s the Texas gulf coast, southern latitudes. Even in winter, the weather is relatively mild.

It has not eclipsed my awareness that some parts of the country have been enduring suffering from severe winter weather conditions and the extent of the arctic front’s reach into this portion of the map is essentially just a dip in temperature. Granted it dipped into the twenties, cold enough to damage the tropical plants that so many of us have adorning the landscape, but no precipitation, no shoveling, no sand or salt, no widespread power outages. All in all, it’s good to be in Texas right now.

Still, this is not our regularly scheduled winter.

Usually, winter gets revved up near mid-to-late January with some gloomy, rainy windy cold. After 4 weeks of Texas-style winter, the migrating robins pop up in our yards to bring glad news. And by the end of February it will all be a memory.

Fun with potted meat

I arrived with Cristy in Oklahoma to visit my mom and stepdad three days before Christmas. It was going to be the first time in many, many years that we were together for Christmas eve and part of Christmas day. Our return reservations were set for the 25th due to scheduling constraints with our pet sitter’s personal travel plans.

The visit was wonderful and the weather was wonderful. Until Christmas eve. It started raining that morning and the forecast called for a steep decline in temperature. This of course, would mean that the composition of that precipitation would change to something else, something frozen. And it did. We went to the movies and when we emerged from the theater, rain was falling in frozen droplets of icy sleet. In another hour, the sleet changed to pretty, fluffy flurries of snow. Exciting for a couple of girls from Texas. Not so exciting for the two that lived in Oklahoma and had experienced the aggravation associated with snow and ice on more than one occasion.

We headed for the casino – no trip to my mom’s is complete without at least one visit to the casino. This casino visit was somewhat justified with a dinner reservation in the restaurant. But unfortunately, inclement weather conditions interfered with our dining plans: the restaurant was closed. So off we went in search of a suitable Christmas eve dinner. Driving through the city, we were startled by the sharp increase in the wind and rate of snowfall. It was indeed beautiful, but made driving a little slower than usual. Visibility was reduced and everyone on the road was proceeding with extra caution.

Within a mile, the welcome sight of Outback Steakhouse greeted us. Perfect. We immediately went indoors for a warm, delicious dinner. Outside the snow was accumulating rapidly. We emerged to a world heavily cloaked in wintry white. It was like being inside a snow globe with the dense snowfall whirling all around. There were still shoppers out and about town, but traffic was waning.

We assumed that the snow would stop falling at some point during the night and the world would resume to normal operations by early to mid-morning. We had a plane to catch at 12:12pm, but in my mind, it would be understandable if the flight was delayed by an hour or two.

Upon awaking at 5am, I decided to check the airline website for flight status. The two earlier flights on Christmas day were cancelled, but my flight indicated a mild delay to the scheduled departure time. No problem.

By 8am, things had changed. My flight was now cancelled. News reports indicated that hundreds of vehicles were stranded along the roads and highway conditions were not safe enough for traveling. I called the airline to reschedule my flight and learned that they had taken the initiative to do this on my behalf. My new return flight was now 4 days away. This news was not registering in my consciousness very well. I could not comprehend the enormous gravity of the weather situation. I inquired about moving my departure to later that evening.

Um, no. Not available.
OK, how about tomorrow?
Well, no. We could get you a flight on Sunday from Dallas to Houston.
Oh, so I just have to get myself from Tulsa to Dallas on my own? No problem.

So that was the plan. But that was not a really good plan. I was depressed. As much as I love visiting my mom, I really wanted to get home. Our visit was cramping their style, just a little bit, and we just wanted a tiny bit of Christmas togetherness at home. Three more days just wouldn’t work.

Cristy called Southwest Airlines after finding what appeared to be availability on their Tulsa departures that same day. They did have seats available. We took 2. Even though the airline was flying to an airport that was not the same as the one from which we originated. We paid out the a*s for those tickets. But we got home with very little trouble. And we got to see my brother, sister-in-law and Cristy’s family that same night.

And we got to witness some family fun with vienna sausages and spam. Nothing like potted meat products to bring out the love.

Winter wonderland for a moment

I just glanced out my window and noticed snow. Yes, it’s definitely a form of precipitation that is whiter than rain. Still, it’s all wet and watery on the ground, so the effect is sort of lost. Unless the ground temperature drops. Which could happen, you never know.

Having lived in the south for so much of my adult life, my few encounters with snow stand out in stark relief to all the other days of my life without snow.

There was some snowfall last year one evening. I spoke with my sister-in-law on the phone the following day and she said that T & D were outdoors taking photos, but they didn’t bother to fix the lighted reindeer on the lawn that had fallen over. That is such a classic Christmas card photo opportunity! I couldn’t stop laughing, just thinking about my crazy brother and nephew, taking those nutty snapshots of toppled over reindeer in the snow.

I was in Chicago once many years ago, the day before Thanksgiving and snow began falling in earnest. Big, clumpy flakes. It was beautiful. I could hardly tear myself away from the window to finish my work that day. Sort of like today. My eyes keep straying to the window, just to make sure. Yes, it’s definitely still snow.

Then there was the time when I was working in northern Virginia and 23 inches of snow fell in one night. Mobility screeched to a halt as the state public works forces and private contractors rallied to clear roads. But I soon discovered the problem with snow. You have to live with it until it melts. You can pile it up, but it just doesn’t go anywhere and soon begins looking like ugly, toxic waste alongside the road.

Living with snow for weeks is completely different than the Houston experience of watching the snow fall from the sky, wondering if a fraction of an inch will accumulate on the top of a car. Enough to gather up in your hand and touch, taste, crunch into a ball and throw. That is the joy of snow.