The Big Freeze of 2011

So this past weekend we began to hear rumblings of a major storm actually panning out.  Usually, when they start talking about Winter storms heading our way they provide several different scenarios and usually the lesser one pans out.  Not this time.  I heard that there was a possibility of extremely low temperatures with ice and snow possible.

So Monday night, my sister and I are sitting up and talking about the week ahead and we heard the wind pick up and then heard the rain come.  We finally went to bed around midnight and I awoke at 4 in the morning to thunder.  The rain didn't sound right, so I went to look out the window and sure enough it was sleet.  My backyard was starting to turn white.  I turned the news on and watched in disbelief when Dallas ISD shut down at 4:30 a.m., and I knew we'd follow.  Amazing why?  Because DISD is known to wait until the last minute to shut down.  It used to bother me that Jason's district would shut down early enough to catch teachers before they walked out the door, and I would usually get the call on the way to school.  I'd leave early because I knew that it would take me awhile to get to school.  If DISD closes, then most districts around will close.  I woke my sister up because I knew that she had wanted to get an early start if it had started to sleet. 

I checked the weather around 5 a.m. and it was dropping fast and the wind chill was amazing.  I don't remember it ever being that cold.  I mean, most of the morning the windchill was -1 degree below zero.  I had to go drop my car off to get fixed and my father in law came to get me.  We did just fine but we slid a couple of times.  He was pretty sure we'd be out another day because the roads weren't clear of ice and it hadn't gotten above 20 degrees all day.  Sure enough, we were out on today. 

But then the rolling outages started.  So tomorrow we'll be out again.  I haven't remembered that happening since fourth grade.  I remember school starting and then halfway through the morning getting to go home because it had been so cold for so long.  The utility companies had redirected the energy.  This time though, they're rolling the outages to help with the grid mainly because it's been so cold in so many places for more than a week.  Wow.  This has been a weird week.