Monday, January 22, 2007

Global Warming Was to Blame

Many have seen the claymation "Rudolf The Red-nosed Reindeer". The story begins with the narrator telling about the big blizzard that almost canceled Christmas....well let me tell you about the "blizzard" that hit Lubbock.

At least as early as last Wednesday, local meteorologists were predicting "the big one" that would cover Lubbock and make us like Denver, CO or Buffalo, NY on Friday night/Saturday morning. It was a doomsday prophecy for sure. We could expect up to 18" of that strange white wet powdery stuff. Oh Wal-Mart was enjoying a second "Christmas eve" like shopping spree with locals snatching up all sorts of things you'd expect to purchase in case of emergencies...bread, eggs, water, diapers, matches, candles, beer, Pillsbury Rolls, etc. Probably the biggest difference for this preparation with the folks in Florida preparing for a hurricane was the long line of cars parked on the freeways trying to get out of town.

By Thursday, snowfall predications were down to 12-15" inches of snow.

By Friday morning, predictions were down to 8-10" inches of snow.

By Friday night, predictions were down to 6-8" inches of snow....6" is still a lot for these parts of the world.



As you can see from the picture, we ended up with about 2" of snow and the kids had some fun. Because of the snowstorm, public schools were canceled on Friday and the Pinewood Derby was canceled on Saturday morning.





This meant that I got to spend time with my eight year old N- making a birdhouse, which was another [possible] requirement for his Wolf badge. So I present to you, the morning's labors...ta da! he helped cut it, nail it and paint it. It was one of them bonding moments.

And the dad of the week award went to.....






The meteorologists clamed that Lubbock was just a couple of degrees too warm for too long for the rain/sleet to turn into the snow that would have dumped more than a foot on us. See, Al Gore was right after all.

16 comments:

Megan said...

Al Gore will never be right because.........he is Al Gore! It doesn't matter what that man says. He could be the prophet and I wouldn't believe him. Thank goodness he's not the prophet.

LuckyRedHen said...

"See, Al Gore was right after all." Never thought I'd hear that one ;o)

carblemarble said...

We got the freezing rain, thousands without power, schools closed for over a week (some still closed because no power), two storms in two weekends, it was not good.
Love the bird house.

"Al Gore right" ... ~shiver~

dalene said...

Go ahead and tell me that. It's about 10 degrees right now. Yesterday was the first time we've been above 20 for a couple of weeks.


And don't forget the beer!

dalene said...

...make a little birdhouse in your soul...

Cari said...

Nothing like a snow day! Bummer about the pinewood derby being cancelled though. That's a big deal for those boys. But good thing he's got a cool dad that made a birdhouse with him!

Cari said...

P.S.
Which one of your boys is that a picture of? I can't believe how big they are all getting!

Cari said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lyle said...

cari- the first picture is little j. He's five now and learned all about sucking on icicles with this last storm. I have a hard time telling him not to cause I did it all the time as a kid. The rule of thum was, if it's clean and doesn't taste funny, then it must be okay.

Lyle said...

cari- btw, for some reason blogger isn't allowing either one of these pictures to "expand" to a larger view. Otherwise, I think it would be a lot easier to tell who's who and what's what.

Pappy Yokum said...

All hail to Al gore - predicter of global warming and inventor of the internet. How could anyone choose not to believe?

Great birdhouse. Now, if one of your kids tell you they were thrown high enough to see over the roof, you can believe them. :))

sue-donym said...

I love how schools close when it snows EVERYWHERE BUT UTAH. I think growing up in the public school system here in Provo, school was cancelled one day out of the entire time I was in school.
Good for you for making it a fun father son day.

Lyle said...

pappy- I believe the word is "launched" high enough to see over the roof.

Fortunately, age and wisdom have been kind enough to help me realize that the perspective of a child is completely different than an adult...or teenager.

Bottom line is, I still broke my arm from the fall. ;-)

sue-I think I can only recall a single snow day in those 12 years. It only had to happen once for there to be a hope of another one.

QueenScarlett said...

So glad I live where it doesn't snow. ;-) And... Al Gore came to my high school when I was a Junior... because I grew up in where Apple is headquartererd and the rise of dot.coms / Internet innovations...blah blah... he came to reinforce that he invented the Information Superhighway... rather funny.

~j. said...

Not to put too fine a point on it...

Funny you should mention Buffalo. That's where my folks reside (south of Buffalo), and where I grew up. In order for school to be cancelled, it took one mother of a storm. Or ice. During winter, I kid you not, I could open up our back door to a wall of drifted snow - it was like a cartoon. Any way, my point is that with all the stormin' and icin' and freezin' in the country, my family back east had a green Christmas and they have only just started to get cold temperatures. No normal storminess this year.

I've heard of this "internet"...it's a series of tubes, right?

sue-donym said...

Al Gore invented the beard