Julie Barrett is a freelance writer and photographer based in Plano, TX.

Surprise!

Fresh when it gets here from Julie Barrett
Wednesday, January 17, 2007


Another restless night filled with odd dreams. In one, I drove with my mother out to the middle of nowhere rural Texas to buy a paring knife. But it just wasn't any old paring knife: It was a special knife made at a special factory, which obviously warranted the drive. I was upset because I'd forgotten my camera. Then I found myself on the panel of I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue. To put it mildly, I sucked. My wit abandoned me. I didn't understand the rules of a simple game of Pick Up Song. The only thing that would have been worse would have been had I been starkers in front of God, the studio audience, and four British comedy legends.

Then the alarm went off. I fumbled in the dark to find the remote control, fully expecting to hear Matt Lauer reading the morning sound byte headlines, each punctuated by a "whoosh." Instead, I heard the local newscaster: "We're pre-empting the Today show to keep you updated about the winter weather."

The WHAT? The last forecast I'd seen called for a slight chance of rain.

"School closings include...Plano..."

That got my attention. Were they merely closed, or holding off opening a couple of hours? I staggered down the hall to the computer and found an e-mail from the district in my inbox. Indeed, the district had called off classes. I padded to the back door and saw this:

back

It didn't look too bad. You have to understand that there was less light at the time I looked out the window, and the ice on the top of houses is stuff left over from the other day - or so I assumed. Then I checked the front:

front

Ice on the streets. So I did what any self-respecting mom would do: I climbed back into bed with the intention of taking pictures when we had a little more light.

Which I did, of course. The pictures, I mean. And the bed. We watched TV for about ten minutes while the cats crawled over us demanding food. So we're up. Chris even woke up early on his own. As he's a teenage boy, the morning wakeup ritual usually involves the use of a small explosive charge strategically placed under the bed.

Not really. But sometimes I wonder if one might help.

So here I sit, my plans for the day on hold. Bowling has been canceled. I'm out of printer ink, so my ambitious plans to get all of the scripts finished today are stalled.

I'm going to take this morning as a gift from the weather gods and relax for a bit. Get a little photo editing done, perhaps some scanning or some work on the web site. Now I'm really happy that I made my deadline last night. This is a much-needed break, and I'm going to enjoy it!

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Filed under: Life   Weather   Pictures      

  2  Comments
 

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deslily said:
yep, I had already heard from my girlfriend in Austin about the ice.. everything shuts down. That blows my mind since whenever i lived in an aread that gets "cold" theres always been trucks to plow and spread salt etc...
Date: 1/17/2007 9:52:37 AM Date: 1/17/2007 9:52:37 AM

Gravatar
deslily said:
yep, I had already heard from my girlfriend in Austin about the ice.. everything shuts down. That blows my mind since whenever i lived in an aread that gets "cold" theres always been trucks to plow and spread salt etc...
Date: 1/17/2007 9:52:37 AM Date: 1/17/2007 9:52:37 AM





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