Dark Bilious Vapors

This is distinctly weird. When I woke up this morning, it is ordinarily the middle of morning rush hour, and the streets which run next to my apartment should have been carrying fairly brisk traffic. As I glanced out the window first thing after waking, the streets were deserted. As I dressed to take the dog out, there were occasional smatterings of traffic, but nothing near normal. As I walked the dog (my normal route for that includes a leg east on Union Avenue), the traffic on Union was a bit heavier than on Madison (next to my apartment), but hardly heavy. Definitely nowhere near as heavy as it should have been. And the Starbuck's at Union Avenue and McLean Boulevard appeared to be closed, as three disappointed Midtown caffeine addicts found out as the dog and I walked by.

The reason is, of course, fairly obvious when one gets out and tramps in the mess. Looking out the window onto the street, all one sees is deceptive whiteness, like a new fallen snow. Of course, if I were thinking for a change, I would have realized things right off the bat, since if what fell yesterday had been snow even the light traffic on McLean or Madison would have turned it into grayish slush by now. What we had yesterday was rain, which mixed into freezing rain and sleet in the afternoon, which then received a light dusting of snow in the evening. The surface of the sidewalk (and I assume, the street) is quite slick--it's mostly a glaze of frozen rain/sleet mixture with a very thin blanket of snow on top. Taking a quick glance outside now, what passing traffic there has been (and it hasn't been much) has basically worn off some of the top layer of snow and frozen sleet/ice, revealing the grayer ice below.

A damned good day to stay home and do nothing. Good thing that that's all I had planned for today, anyway.

Len on 12.23.04 @ 09:27 AM CST