Snow Storm!

It's a ‘level 3 snow and ice storm emergency’ in Cincinnati. I should be in the photo lab at North Light Books, but everything is closed due to the storm.

I awakened to 4 inches of snow yesterday morning – a gorgeous winter wonderland. Snow doesn’t slow anyone down here, like it does in Seattle – there are teams of snowplows screaming down the streets salting and clearing down to bare pavement. What slows the city is ice. Businesses closed down at 2:00 yesterday afternoon as the ice storm moved in. When my editor, Julie, and I walked out into the parking lot, it looked and felt like rain and I couldn’t understand why we were being sent home. However, her car, the road was covered in a layer of ice. Julie drove me by the mall so I could buy a stack of movies and to a grocery store to load up on staples for dinner and breakfast – there isn’t any restaurant in the hotel, but I have a little fridge and microwave in my room. We knew I might be stranded for awhile.

I hunkered down last night, watched a couple of movies, read my book and watched ice coat the windows until they looked like the frosted glass one buys for bathroom windows. The ice storm continued through the night and sometime in the wee hours, the hotel lost electricity. As the power cycled on and off, smoke alarms were set off – what a shot of adrenaline!

Early this morning, the ice turned back to snow and after a lazy morning, I bundled up and went out to make a snowman in the hotel parking lot. However the snow was powdery and wouldn’t pack, so I went for a walk instead. I wish I had my camera! The trees are coated with ice – every branch, twig and pine needle glistening through a top coating of snow. It is crippling, but beautiful.

I’m back inside now, watching swirling snow out my hotel window.