Winter: Week 2

We had a week of winter around the Christmas holidays, then enjoyed temps consistently in the 70s during the day, with some warm-ups into the 80s. The weeds are growing, the vegetation is greening, and life is looking good.

However, it began raining last Thursday and has continued to rain off and on since, some of it fairly heavy, too. Today, as I looked toward the West, all I could see was a solid black bank of nastiness hovering over the mountains and clogging the pass between. It snowed yesterday and last night, so the local mountains are heavily covered, including the mountains that come right across the highway I take to work.

I called the campus; no answer. I called the highway patrol; no adverse road conditions. I checked the weather on-line; severe storm warnings/rain. With no concrete information upon which to make a decision, I packed the truck and headed up the hill.

The first snowflakes began pelting the windshield in Morongo Valley, and then became rain until the Yucca Grade, where real snow began falling. By the time I topped the grade, it was significantly snowing, so I pulled off the road, called and left a message to cancel my class, turned around and drove back home. Although the snow isn't sticking now, it will as that weather front isn't going to blow through any time soon. Worse than snow, however, is black ice on the two major downgrades between my class and my home.

I'm not going to be stuck on the road when I leave class at 9 pm, so call me a weather wuss if you must, but I'm home, snug as a bug in a rug, and we'll have to figure out how we're going to workaround three Monday holidays and now a weather closure.