Thursday's Ten: about snow in tennessee

as the rest of the country, tennessee is kind of buried under snow at the moment.
and i think it's thrown everyone into a bit of shock!

you see,



{1) we don't get snow here very often.  once a year (well, season), normally, and just a light dusting (at least to my indiana-born eyes)
THIS season we're on our 3rd snow.  2 in december and 1 now.  which started on sunday.  which brings me to my next point...
{2} i've never seen snow last for more than 2-3 days here.  but it keeps.snowing.  which means we have a few MORE days of the white stuff even after it finally stops!
{3} some places have 5-6 inches of snow!  this is unheard of!  i only have a couple of inches, but my travels this week have taken me to some of the deeper snowed in areas.  i'm kinda loving it, i can't lie
{4} nashvillians...do NOT drive well in snow
{5} however, in their defense they usually have more ice than snow.  and tennessee is really hilly...much more so than where i grew up!  and even though it's been way more snow than ice this time around, they're expecting it to be as per usual, i think.  so we're driving down completely clear roads at 30 mph.  sigh.
{6} and school may as well be canceled for the month.  they haven't gone all week, and they've used up all 4 snow days plus 2 now.  because i work for educators, i have only worked one day this week (when she asked me to come over so she could run errands).  i JUMPED at the chance to get out of the house.  however, i am babysitting today, which means that i'm earning some extra cash which is really nice!
{7} all the sleds are sold out everywhere.  of course, not many places had them in stock, lol.  must.find.a.sled by this weekend.  my friend brittany and i have major plans to go sledding if we can find one!
{8} as i've mentioned a couple of times, we have awesome citywide snowball fights on the first day of a good snow.  if this season is any indication, there may be a couple more of these this year!
{9} tires.go.flat.  or low.  it kinda drives me crazy. 
(note to self: stop by gas station on the way to teaching piano today to pump up.  again.)
{10} but for all our mess, we're nowhere near as bad as atlanta.

noon on wednesday, atlanta

how about you?  or are you just so sick of the snow that you'd rather write about 10 things OTHER than the snow? :-)

nashville snow drivers

i've written tips about winter weather

and have done my fair share plus of complaining about nashville drivers in the snow

today i'll give you a slight glimpse of what i'm talking about.  which is timely because ICE is predicted today.  oh joy!

as i see it there are a few distinct categories of nashville (or southern) snow drivers

in no particular order (except how it comes to my brain) here they are

the recent transplant

characteristics: doesn't understand what everyone is complaining about, forgets temporarily that tennessee gets less snow and more ice, also forgets that nashville is very hilly

driving style: at least 20 mph faster than everyone else on the road, over-confident

(for tractor trailers, add 10 mph and a whole lot of aggressiveness.  yikes)

the nervous nellie/ned

characteristics: have rarely if ever driven in snow, decide that wherever they need to go is clearly more important than the safety of everyone else in the city, bundled up in a heavy coat, thick gloves and a hat that keeps dropping over their eyes but they are too afraid to take their hands off the wheel to push it up

driving style: at least 20 mph slower than everyone else on the road, frequent braking, hands at 11 and 1 on the steering wheel and sitting at the very edge of their driver's seat

the native

characteristics: is only experienced in driving to his or her local grocery store for bread/milk/eggs but feels that experience is just as good as anyone else's

driving style: speed varies, but braking is frequent

the oblivious

characteristics: knows there is snow/ice on the road and that it's slowing everyone else down, but doesn't feel as if it affects him/her, often spotted with "multi-tasking" items such as cell phone or coffee in hand, or makeup brush poised

driving style: at least 20 mph faster than everyone else, reckless when there ISN'T winter weather, so completely hazardous when there is.  avoid this person at all costs.

 

on a scary(ier) note, here's actual footage of tennessee drivers on ice.  yikes!

and some tips, should you need them.  i kid in this post (kind of) but in ALL seriousness, be careful out there!

(all photos from google images)

Monday's Memory: the one with the trip back from clarksville

we had been dating for about 2 months

went to clarksville

about an hour away

to attend the 50th wedding anniversary of a family (mine) friend

my parents happened to come down as well, so anthony met them for the first time

we had an event with our kids that evening, so we left in PLENTY of time to get back

unfortunately

this is tennessee

and weird, weird, weird things happen on our highways

that hour long trip

took several

because of hazardous waste on the highway and re-routing

thank goodness anthony had a deck of cards in the center console

although we eventually grew tired of playing slaps

ahhhh, good times

(and yes, we're always paranoid now

when driving back home 

on 24)

Nashville: 11:39 pm

boulevard of broken dreams...broken cars...broken people, broken lives
strange sights, strange sounds, strange land
creeped out drivers plod through wasteland, wantland, needland
amazed and astonished at what lies before them

blue lighting up the skies on every turn
abandoned highway where there should be plenty,
abundance of cars
sits silently in wait of the lone driver, the adventurer

she drives alone, terrified yet enthralled
heart pounding with excitement, with fear
knowing the strange silence of these nashville highways
is temporary

the dark thoughts that swirl around her mind will disappear

light will come

the hustle and bustle will return
normalcy will come
and until then

she must drive on

You Can't Make This Stuff Up: Volume 8

A friend of mine (who co-writes this fairly awesome blog) said it best when she termed it "the Department of Weird Things Spilled on our Interstate"

cucumbers.
all over I-40
just about 30 minutes outside of Nashville, and about 15 minutes from my house

News story here...but there's not much there.

Other random things spilled on TN highways recently:
chicken nuggets
fuel (not odd, but it seems to happen a lot--most recently in January)
adhesive

and there's more, but honestly I'm a bit too lazy to search the articles.
:0)

Snow Days

I'm not even going to get into the Nashville drivers on the icy roads (they were bad) or the fact that all the schools in the area got off not one but three days and counting (which is ridiculous)

I'm just going to tell you that I've tremendously enjoyed the snow.

And what better way to relay a story than through pictures?

It began with a bit of snowfall...backyard view

normally when I open the back door Emi comes running in the hopes of going outside. every time I opened the door in hopes that she would come and explore...

Emi stayed in her box and said "NO!"

attempt to get a picture of the snow actually falling

my neighbor Mattie and her sweet dog Izzie...we went on a picture taking walk :)

cracked UP at this. the street was still clear and someone apparently still ran up on the yard...

one of the few pictures of myself that I'm digging

Mattie and Izzie

headed back in...

I eventually forced Emi to go outside for a minute. she was not a fan.

"that's enough!"

The next day I had a bit of cabin fever. So I decided to go to Anthony's house and play in the snow. This was quite a venture...first came unearthing the car.

20 minutes later...

we won't talk about the lovely human being in my neighborhood who owns the mid-80s model car with slick custom tires who thought he should also get out. who blocked traffic for nearly an hour when it was all said and done.

we also shouldn't mention the fact that the interstates were nearly as bad as the side streets as far as ice went...and that people on them really didn't seem to know what they were doing for the most part.

we'll just skip to the next part of the story: playing!

and eating the snow

and finding cool shapes in the snow

and putting snow on our heads

...and kissing in the snow...

♥

and throwing snow at each other (it was good sledding snow...not so much good snowball snow)

and shoving the snow in each other's faces

and holding hands in the snow

and taking self portraits in the snow

and kissing in the snow

(hey, give me a break. a snow like this only comes to nashville once every 5-10 years)

...at least i twisted my ankle on sunday...

because our 5K was *awesome*

I left my house at 2pm (race started at 3) because I knew that it would take at least 30 minutes to get there. I live only 15 minutes away, but they had shut down one of our major roads for construction all weekend so the back way I had to take was sure to be jammed full of not-so-happy rerouted people.

Sure enough.

Anthony's aunt texted me while I was still waiting in a line of traffic on said back road, asking if I were there yet. I said no, but probably would be off this particular street within 5 minutes and it should be a short 5 minute drive from there. She said they were 1 stoplight down from the zoo waiting in line to turn in (they were coming the opposite way from me).

It took exactly 5 minutes for me to turn onto the next street (points for me knowing my Nashville traffic!), and not even 5 to get to where I could see the entrance to the zoo. That's where the real fun began.

(don't you love this overpass with the animals painted on? on the other side there's a cheetah stretching up to a bird. very fun.)

I only got pictures from my side of the line, because thankfully it moved really quickly. However, once I got around this corner:

This is what awaited me!

Once I was in, I texted them to see if they had parked. They were STILL IN LINE to turn into the zoo! My side of town for the win!

More waiting ensued...at least it's a pretty little drive up the zoo property to the parking lot...

(this sign always cracks me up a little bit)

I finally parked. There was a MASSIVE amount of people milling around the parking lot (including Gnash, the Nashville Predator's mascot). So I decided to just hang around the top of the lot and wait for Anthony's mom and aunt...because I figured there was NO WAY I would find them in that crowd.
(which I found out later was at least 3000 people strong--and that was just the participants)
I only ran into one other person I knew--a former coworker from when I was teaching. Since we taught together she has had a precious little girl who is now 2, and found out that she had cancer when Olivia was 3 weeks old. She thankfully was declared cancer free last October, and is doing these 5Ks and half-marathons just to show that she's kicked cancer's ass. I love it.

They delayed the start of the race until 3:15 because of the traffic, but eventually we were off!

The route was pretty cool--lots of little trails not open to the public and quite the backyard tour of the zoo! We're members there so I thought I had seen all the animals the zoo houses, but there are several that live off exhibit. I was lucky enough to walk by these tapirs. If I hadn't watched Rachael Ray earlier in the week I wouldn't have known that they were so special, but apparently they're a pretty rare sight.The path was paved at times, rocky at times, and muddy often. Several hills and twists and turns. I can't imagine having run those portions of it!

We got to see the Bengal tigers (who were quite interested in all of us too!) and the other big cats (Lynx and cougars were out) but most of the other animals were either indifferent or holed away somewhere. I didn't stop to take any pictures. Got a couple of drive-by shots, but they definitely show motion:

(lynx)We wanted to beat our last 5K time which was somewhere in the 55-60 minute range. Of course, we all were walking slower that race so we thought it shouldn't be a problem. We decided that somewhere between 45 minutes and 50 minutes would be great. Of course, we decided this when my iPhone app that we were using to time ourselves (we weren't officially timed, so we started about 5 minutes after the timed runners/walkers) turned to 40 minutes. So we were hoping we were within 10 minutes of ending the race!

Mess, Anthony's aunt, got a little burst of energy right at the end and started speedwalking. Anthony's mom and I looked at each other, shrugged, and kept walking at the same pace. She finished 10 seconds ahead of us...we ended the walk at 48:36. Not too shabby for walking the ENTIRE way...and definitely not to shabby for me considering that less than a month before it literally hurt to walk from one place to the next. My back did fine for the entire time, and I even began contemplating running some in the next 5K we do...which will be in 2 weeks!

finished! Anthony's mom on the left, aunt on the right

Mess and me

And then Sunday came.
And in true Lora fashion:
I completely wiped out in the back of our sanctuary after church.
Twisted my ankle.

Not TOO badly, but enough that I'm now wearing an ankle brace for support so that I'll be able to do the next 5K...

but I guess I'll be walking that one too!

(Next 5K: Nashville Predators Fangtastic 5K...February 6...12 days and counting!)