In which I really like the weather.

One thing Iowa does really well is thunder storms. They roll in, big and black and impressive, and they make loud thunder and bright lightning and it rains like hell, and it’s green and lush and warm and I really dig it. It’s tropical and sexy.

We had one of those storms this morning. Bread woke me up early to say the coffee was made and to point out that it was pretty damn dark outside. I got up, poured myself a cup, and found my cameras.

I took a few non-flash pictures with my Elph. (I now have a tiny tripod for it, so the non-flash pictures are starting to turn out better.) Then I tried to take a shot or three with a digital so y’all could see how rainy and stormy and lush it was this morning, but my old digital camera is a total piece of shit and wasn’t having any.

Then Bread went off to work.

One of the basement windows started leaking ’cause it was raining like hell. Hell, I tell you! So I stuck a bowl there to catch the water. Another of the basement walls was seeping and wet. A rather large puddle was forming just inside the basement door — large enough the cat balked at crossing it because he didn’t want to get his paws wet.

Sometimes our basement floods when it rains really hard, and it was raining really hard. I rolled up the rug in the living room, and did some standard flood-proofing: unplug stuff, get extension cords up off the floor. (We live in the basement because we’re remodeling.)

Then I installed myself on the couch with Bindu and Shiva and my coffee, to see if the living room would flood.

It didn’t — not like it has before — there were just some damp floors and things, but I did take a nice cuddly dog nap. And was late to work. Again.

In which nature fucks some shit up! (This post is mostly for Fairfield ex-pats.)

Iowa City is an hour away from here. It’s where one goes to party and shop when one lives in Fairfield. A tornado cruised through Iowa City last night, killing one person, ripping the roof off Menard’s and the Old Capitol building, and making a big mess. Here’s links:

• KCCI Des Moines News: Tornado Kills 1 In Stratford
• ABC News: Tornadoes Kill 1 in Eastern Iowa
• Pictures: Damaged car dealership

In Batavia, it merely rained.

In which it only rained.

The NWS cancelled the tornado watch just before I shut my computer down and the satellite went out. It got really windy and a storm front rolled in; it rained like hell for awhile and that was it. Bread called from Fairfield to say they were getting grape-sized hail.

No tornadoes. Whew. It did remain blustery and rainy throughout the night.

I made tacos for dinner at about ten. Bread ate a package of goldfish crackers (because apparently he no longer eats the vegetarian taco filling I’ve always served). We watched Big Love on HBO and went to bed.

Between the time change and the power flickering enough to set all the clocks flashing, there was absolutely no hope of my getting to work on time today. I still feel bad about rolling in late, though. I hate DST. It’s sooooo stupid. Why can’t we just pick a time and stay there all goddamned year long?

In which I’m trying to decide whether I should just turn around and go right back home.

It’s just gonna be all kinds of crappy out for the rest of the day. This just in:

WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 PM CST THIS AFTERNOON.

A MIX OF FREEZING RAIN, SLEET AND SNOW WILL CHANGE TO SNOW AROUND MIDDAY. ICE ACCUMULATIONS UP TO A QUARTER INCH WILL BE POSSIBLE. SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 6 INCHES ARE EXPECTED IN THE AFTERNOON. NORTHWEST WINDS INCREASING TO 20 TO 30 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON WILL CREATE NEAR-BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. ACCUMULATING SNOW WILL END BY EVENING… BUT THERE MAY STILL BE SOME BLOWING SNOW.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW… SLEET… AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

A quarter-inch of ice under five inches of snow? Travel very hazardous or impossible? Christ. I vote for daffodils instead.

More importantly, however, is that someone just put hundreds of dollars on my desk. Yay, payday!

In other news, I had a bit of a spa night last night. I trimmed my toenails, plucked my eyebrows, and then had a lovely steam bath and mud mask. When I woke up this morning, my face felt awesome.

Sadly, it doesn’t look as good as it feels, but at least that nasty blemish on my cheek went away. I really do harbor a deep suspicion that people with small pores are fundamentally happier.

An update (12:37 PM CST): …then again, maybe not:

ICE STORM WARNING IS CANCELLED.

SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 7 INCHES ARE EXPECTED NORTHWEST OF A CEDAR RAPIDS TO DUBUQUE LINE…WITH 2 TO 4 INCHES OF SNOW EXPECTED NORTHWEST OF AN OTTUMWA TO ROCK ISLAND TO DIXON LINE. LIGHTER SNOW AMOUNTS BETWEEN 1 TO 2 INCHES WILL FALL SOUTH OF THIS AREA. INCREASING NORTHWEST WINDS WILL CAUSE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW WHICH COULD CREATE NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS OVER PORTIONS OF EASTERN IOWA AND NORTHWEST ILLINOIS THIS EVENING.

Another update (1:38 PM CST): The weather’s just laming out altogether now. Guess I’ll be having a 5 o’clock cocktail at the bar after all.

.NOW… PERIODS OF FREEZING DRIZZLE AND LIGHT SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH 3 PM WITH UP TO AN INCH OF SNOW ACCUMULATION EXPECTED. BITTER COLD ARCTIC AIR WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA WITH TEMPERATURES FALLING THROUGH THE 20S. NORTHWEST WINDS OF 10 TO 15 MPH WILL PRODUCE WIND CHILL VALUES AROUND 10 DEGREES ABOVE ZERO. TRAVEL CONDITIONS WILL REMAIN HAZARDOUS ACROSS THE REGION.

In which… hmm. Nothing, I guess.

It snowed a little bit last night, a light dusting.

That’s the view out the windshield of the jeep as I drove down the driveway this morning. (Does every language refer to weather as “it”? “It” rained, “it” snowed?) The roads were totally clear. But it made everything look white and clean, instead of muddy and dead. And that was nice.

In which yesterday’s nice, sweet weather turns to snow.

Yesterday was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that, in Iowa in January, makes people mutter suspiciously to one another, “It’s too nice out. Probably gonna dump a foot of snow on us any minute now.”

And so it has begun. And it might keep up all day:

URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE QUAD CITIES IA IL
1121 AM CST FRI JAN 20 2006

A FAST-MOVING WINTER STORM WILL MOVE THROUGH THE AREA THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. SNOW WILL RAPIDLY DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE INTO THE EVENING HOURS.

ADDITIONALLY… AREAS SOUTH OF A LINE FROM PROPHETSTOWN TO KEOSAUQUA MAY SEE THUNDER SNOW.

AN ADDITIONAL THREAT WILL BE THE SNOW. SNOW…HEAVY AT TIMES…IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP BY LATE AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE INTO THE EVENING HOURS. THE THREAT OF THUNDER SNOW IS QUITE HIGH WHICH WILL REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO NEAR ZERO IN LOCALIZED AREAS.

TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE BY MIDNIGHT.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW… SLEET…AND ICE ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

Naturally, what this means to me is that my DH is in the next room right this very minute cutting a giant, gaping hole in an external wall of our future living room with his trusty Sawzall.

There’ll be a nice new big window in it by dark, but still. Who cuts a 4′ x 6′ hole in his own house when threatened with thunder snow?!

(Okay, okay. I admit it. That warning’s not exactly for the county I live in. I just like the idea of thunder snow.)

– – –
Update: Check it out! A new Pella window, set in the hole:

It which it was supposed to snow 3-6 inches last night. And it totally did.

There were about 4 inches of snow on my jeep when I went out to sweep it off and start it up this morning. I had to put it in 4WD to get from the farm to the blacktop.

I got stuck for awhile behind a tiny little rollerskate of a car with street slicks and Tennessee plates. The guy was getting absolutely zero traction; I could see his tires spinning. He was going about 15 mph.

I got stuck for awhile behind a plow truck, too.

And it’s still snowing!

SNOW ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM CST THIS EVENING.

SNOW WILL FALL THROUGH THE DAY… TAPERING OFF TO FLURRIES BY EARLY EVENING TO THE WEST AND LATER IN THE EVENING TO THE EAST. PERIODS OF HEAVY SNOW WILL BE POSSIBLE DURING THE LATE MORNING AND AFTERNOON HOURS. SNOWFALL AMOUNTS WILL BE MAINLY IN THE 3 TO 6 INCH RANGE. HOWEVER… LOCATIONS EAST OF A LINE FROM MACOMB TO GENESEO COULD SEE ISOLATED 7 INCH AMOUNTS.

A SNOW ADVISORY MEANS THAT SNOW WILL CAUSE DIFFICULT TRAVEL CONDITIONS. BE PREPARED FOR SNOW COVERED ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES…AND USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING.

My windshield kept icing up so I had to pull over three times to snap the blades. The jeep was being bitchy about going in and out of 4WD. Half the people on the road were going so slow they were practically driving backwards, and the other half wanted to drive over the speed limit. It’s seriously amazing that more people don’t off themselves driving in this weather. The conditions are bad enough; the other drivers are a damn hazzard. (I drive like an 80 year old woman, but at least I don’t go 15 in a 65 with my lights off when it’s snowing and visibility is low.)