The Snowpocalypse of 2014 - 28 Jan 2014

We had warning of a couple days that nasty weather was on it's way in, but of course, being used to dire warnings of chaos panic and destruction from hurricanes, this little storm seemed a good reason to be cautious, but that was about it. 

The schools had incredibly rare snow/ice days and shuttered their campuses the 28th and 29th.  Government offices with non-emergent personnel, courts, state funded non-profits all closed, unsure when they would open back up...but most of them figured that Thursday, the 30th, would be soon enough.  We certainly didn't want busloads of kiddies skidding around the icy roadways, wrecking all sorts of havoc, did we?

The 28th, a Tuesday, started out gloomy and, throughout the day go progressively uglier and colder.  Mean-spirited spits of ice pellets, like the sand kicked in your face by a beach bully, stung the eyes and wrapped trees and mailboxes alike in shimmering sheaths of ice nearly half an inch thick.  The winter storm was one with the attitude of an angry old man, determined to dampen spirits throughout the northwestern part of the state, threw little shards of ice at the faces of anyone unfortunate enough (or crazy enough) to be outside.
The lofty bamboo plants, pine trees, and saw palms drooped, the weight of their nature-made icy cloaks too much to bear upright.  Trees groaned when the wind blew, a sound oddly similar to the creak of a saddle, or a leather jacket.  In short, it was not a scene your typical Floridian was accustomed to.  It wasn't something they understood.  Below freezing temperatures and icy wind blasts just weren't a normal winter occurrence.