Slippery As @&%!*!!

The freezing rain finally ended and it got up into the low thirties this afternoon. People were saying "Oh, it's all going to melt off and everything will be fine."

Yeah. Wrong.

It only stayed above thirty for a couple of hours. And only the stuff in direct sunlight (if there was any) melted and then froze again.

Doing the Del Norte walk was a real adventure. The area between the fences is full of gravel. Well, rocks, anyway. And they all had a nice coating of ice.

I imagine if you went to a hockey arena and poured a million ball bearings on the ice and then tried to walk on them it would be like that.

I was pleased and amazed and somewhat startled that I made it all the way around without breaking an arm or a hip or something. But it was a near thing. Actually, four of the zones I set off were when I slipped and grabbed the fence to keep from falling.

I don't think I got an accurate survey of the lights because I had to watch where my feet were at all times. If I had to write down a light out I had to come to a complete stop or I would have ended up flat on my back.

And let me tell you, walking like that for any length of time is hard on your hips and back. Oy, I'm not getting any younger!

We had the expected bazillion call-outs today. Maybe a quarter of day shift and about as many of our shift didn't make it in because of the ice. That was bad news. We ended up keeping alot of day shift people over to cover ours.

And I made it out again without being held over. I must have done something good in a past life.

Do I already cover what tomorrow will be? I can't remember. In any case it's both Underdog Day and national Maple Syrup Day. Just in case you were wondering.

Maybe that's why my house smells like pancakes. It's very strange.