This morning was the first in a long time when we could actually see the sun rise.
Sunrise from the deck — click to enlarge
My drive home from Huntsville, Alabama, takes me over the Little River, which flows on top of Lookout Mountain. We have had lots of rain in the last week, so the river was running pretty high. There is a waterfall just below the bridge.
The river was high
I’ve seen it higher, but this was pretty nice.
Sometimes we get a decent amount of snow down here, but if there is even a hint, businesses and schools close and people make runs on the grocery stores for milk and bread. Most of the time, a hint is all it amounts to.
This time we got a little sleet that changed into snow. A little slush accumulated on streets, and there was a light dusting of snow on the fields and forests. It started at about 11 am, and by around noon, most of Huntsville, Al, where I work, was closing down. I was at a meeting on Redstone Arsenal when the word came that the arsenal was closing, supposedly in stages to prevent a traffic jam at the gates. But that plan didn’t really work. As soon as everyone heard that the arsenal, which includes the Marshall Space Flight Center, was closing, they left. There are about six thousand employees at Marshall, and in the thousands on the rest of the base (I’m not sure how many — a lot). Most of them left at the same time. I took this picture with my iPhone while sitting in a line of cars exiting the base. Don’t worry; I wasn’t moving at the time.
This is the worst of it — I had to turn on my windshield wipers
That was about the extent of the snow.
If you look closely you can see a line of cars on a cross street. Traffic was backed up a couple of miles trying to get through the gates and off the base. Just on the other side of the gates, the highway crosses I-565, which has five westbound lanes at that point leading out of the city. It was bumper to bumper as far west as I could see. It looked like everyone in the city was leaving. I think it would look about like this if we had been told there was going to be a nuclear strike on the city.
But Huntsville is not a huge city, so the traffic jam was over pretty quick. And so was the snow.
These are the stages of sleep.
First, yawning.
Sometimes you feel like a nap.
Second, drowsiness.
You’re getting sleepy … your eyelids are getting heavy
Third, unconsciousness.
Comatose
This is the longest stage. It can last for hours, sometimes days.
Don’t even think of popping him on the chin to make him bite that little pink tongue. No, I said don’t think about that.
Don’t make me go out in public like this. And hide the cat’s pingpong ball, please.
It’s been raining since yesterday. And yes, dogs still have to go outside when nature calls. So Zeke has to look like the Gorton’s fisherman. Unfortunately, he considers it a punishment, like wearing a straightjacket, and most of the time he refuses to relieve himself. It’s a protest against the man.
Saturday was a damp, fairly dark day, just like the day before. The conditions were similar to those of Christmas day. The visibility was about the same, or possibly lower.
Walking down Lavender Trail towards the gap.
We turned left towards Texas Valley, like we did on Christmas Day. We didn’t walk far before I realized that the fog was gone. At the bottom I turned to look back up.
The clouds hide the top of the mountain.
Just like on Christmas Day, what we saw as fog on the mountain top was clouds from below. The clouds were thick enough that the top of the mountain was not visible.
The air was noticeably warmer at the bottom of the mountain, and as we walked back up I regretted wearing a long-sleeve shirt. As the day progressed, the air became warmer up at the top of the mountain, and the clouds withdrew to higher altitudes.
By 4 p.m. it was 65 F. I talked to a friend in Denver around mid-afternoon. He said they were headed to an expected high of 12 F.