Monday,
February 24, 2003
Uh-oh
It dawned a chilly and overcast day in the DFW metroplex -- I was moderately surprised when I glanced at my temp gauge and it read 26° F. And then I slowed the car down from 70 MPH (well, everyone ELSE was driving that fast -- how was I to know?)
Steve had to go off and get official things done to his new Golf and Mike is going the Diet Gourmet meal plan, so I grabbed a fast solo lunch and spent the rest of the hour writing at Starbucks ("Daughters of Men" -- I'm running up against the classic problem that the bulk of the story either needs to be shown in flashback or related to the narrator. I dunno which way I want to go, but so far the flashback seems to be the more active of the choices). I'd actually just gotten back when the VP for Engineering came around and ordered everyone to leave. Seems there was a severe weather front on the way that was about to encase DFW in a half-inch of ice.
I thought the sky looked a little ominous.
Not being one to turn down such advice, I bustled home (it just started raining on the way), called Lyndon en route and told him to come home, stopped off at Albertson's to do a stockup, and settled in for the day. Which actually turned out to be a good thing, as I had to fix a problem with a customer's website domain name and I needed a couple of daytime hours to do it. Lyndon got home about a half hour after me, and said it was already getting slick as anything ("I've decided," he said, "I don't like skidding") and that was at 3:30 PM or so. We're now sitting here with sleet hissing against the windows, the ground is completely white with ice, the taps are turned on trickle, the cats are prowling around our ankles demanding the occasional cuddle for warmth, and unless this all melts in the middle of the night I don't think we're going anywhere for a bit.
Suits me. I needed
to clean this joint anyway.