The Great Ice Storm of 2009

Now THIS is the kind of Texas winter I remember.

No, we didn't get some miraculous fall of snow that turned the world all fluffy and pristine and white and clean. No, I'm talking about that dreaded three-letter word . . .

I-C-E.

It's funny that I don't have many memories of suffering bitterly cold weather growing up in Farmers Branch, but I vividly remember a couple of monster ice storms. And I hate ice. I really hate ice. I'm clumsy enough on solid ground as it is.

Nevertheless, a big ice storm was predicted to hit our area in the early hours of Tuesday, and evidently all of the kids at school were buzzing with anticipation at having the day off from school Tuesday. So sure were my children that they were getting a free pass that they didn't even bother to set their alarm clocks Monday night.

Naturally, Tuesday morning dawned grey and cloudy and . . . dry. No precip in sight. Needless to say, my sweet children did not head off with a spring in their step yesterday. But a few scant hours later they were all whistling another tune! Around 10:30 my cell phone rang, and when I answered the call it sounded like I'd tapped in to the world's largest victory celebration! You could hear students whooping and hollering in the background, and I had to shout "Hello!!" several times before Tyler, who was on the other end of the line, could hear me. He informed me that PCA would be releasing its students at 12:30 due to inclement weather and I could only hope that he heard my affirmative confirmation that I would pick him up in the girls' carpool line.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. I got two similar phone calls from Darcy and Peyton within the hour--they really need a system to confirm when they've reached a parent--and suddenly all my plans for the day were changed.

At about 12:15 I headed out into what I thought was less-than-inclement weather to pick up the kids, and was not at all surprised to find, upon reaching the school, that the line of cars in front of the high school snaked around the corner and into the street. Ordinarily I am pretty patient with the carpool line, knowing that we're all there for the same reason, but on this day I was particularly perturbed because there are supposed to be two lines of traffic, one that is allowed to park and wait for students right next to the secondary building and one that can be used to bypass the secondary building and go straight to the elementary building.

But on this day, both lines stopped squarely in front of the high school and nothing was moving. Plenty of cars were leaving the elementary side and there was no back-up to speak of, but I couldn't get there. In fact, I just happened to be one of the vehicles stuck out on the street. After several minutes of futile idling, I realized that it would be much quicker to simply park and walk into the building. So I whipped the van into an open parking space and sure enough, quicker than you can say, "Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!" I had all three kids safely ensconced in our toasty vehicle.

The weather really did nothing more than drizzle the rest of the day, making me wonder just exactly why school had been called, and it wasn't until yesterday evening that any sort of icy mixture finally materialized. The temperature was cold enough and the downpour was steady enough that Randy felt pretty sure the kids would get at least a two-hour reprieve this morning. As it turned out, I evidently turned my computer off just minutes before an e-mail went out stating that school was being called off for the entire day. But even without that information, Randy made the call to turn the kids' alarm clocks off--yeah, THIS time they actually set them!--and I'm so thankful because I would have felt awful making them wake up at 6:30, only to tell them that school had been cancelled!

Alas, the ice was not bound long for this earth and the roads are already completely passable--that is, the ones that we travel. So much for the fury of the Great Ice Storm of '09--not that I'm complaining. But I'm sure my kids will!