The Joy and Perils of Ice

Aren't these ice sculptures the greatest? Today, it's cold enough that even some parts of Texas could have ice sculptures. Thanks to Donna for sending these to me from Minnesota.

Dallas actually does have ice sculptures, but they're indoors.
Ice is great in this form, but when it's on the road and bridges--that's another story.
We have wind chill in the single digits today and sleet with an accumulation possible of 1 inch with winds of 25-35 mph and gusts up to 40 mph as a strong Arctic front moves through the area. They're warning to wear hat and gloves because of hypothermia and frostbite. I wonder how many will wear shorts today.
My home was shaking in the middle of the night, several sonic booms of thunder lacing the area, and everything is covered in a sheet of ice.
It looks like rainwater. But it's dangerously deceptive.
I've driven on black ice before, several times when I had to--in the military, you don't just choose not to go into work. And I drove in 1st gear the whole way to Fort Hood, Texas, because when changing gears into 2nd, I began to slide off the road like everyone else in front and behind me. So I drove in first, and made it. Only to find that they closed the post for 2 hours. Great to know when there was no other option but to keep going forward. Or into the median, like so many did and got stuck.
I had an accident once, driving on ice, trying to get into work over a mostly closed based at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, but I had duty. I didn't make it.
I nearly wiped out on a bridge driving to Fort Sill--the whole road dry until I hit the bridge, and did a drunken zigzag all the way across it, barely missing the railings on either side until I finally met dry pavement at the end of the bridge. Luckily, the next car coming hadn't made it to the bridge yet.
I was caught in a blizzard, both at Fort Meade, Maryland (at the same time that the plane crashed into the Potomac nearby) and Fort Monmouth, NJ and so nearly had accidents both times as my car decided to go a different direction than I wanted it to as I was trying to get home after work. I needed to take a vacation somewhere in the islands after I got home. As long as I didn't have to drive anywhere to do it.
I remember my mother telling me how she didn't bother going into work in Texas as she was a cosmetic saleslady for a major department store and it was icy like today. But two other women she knew did, and wrecked their car, the one breaking her leg. And she, like I, have to cross twin bridges over a lake to get to work.
And it reminds me that sometimes, it's better to just stay home. Everyone else will anyway.
:) The only thing good about today is the Internet is still up! Normally, it crashes during storms and high winds!
Have a super great day!!!
Terry"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."www.terryspear.com