Monday morning we woke to about 2 inches of snow. Most of it melted rather quickly, and it was a fairly nice day.
Later, we got a storm warning, but there was nothing but blue sky. I ran some errands, made a heavenly pork roast, rice and black beans with green chiles. Then it was off to a District accountability meeting. At the meeting, I got talked into being part of a new committee for designing a strategic plan for the district. Ah well,… I was involved with the one planned 12-14 years ago, so why not.
I came home, had dinner since I didn’t get to eat before the meeting and sat down to talk with Dan about his afternoon. He’d gone out to a client and then stopped at the Amato truck stop on the way home. While he was there, the Army group headed for Pinon Canyon Exercise grounds pulled in. In talking to a Lieutenant, he made the realization that all 1200 men were headed into the canyon just ahead of a severe winter storm warning, and that they had no clue. Most of them were fresh from Iraq or leave, and had no clue of what Southern Colorado could do to them in a snow storm.
To say that he was a little irate over the whole thing was an understatement. So, he talked to the Lt. and the Major in charge. Dan let them know the kinds of things that they were in for, and what they could do. From what Dan said, these guys were equipped for sunny weather, and not below zero temps. He gave them some advice, and they actually pulled some of the other officers in to listen. Talked about all sorts of things. Then Dan headed home, and worried.
He told me all of this and it only reinforced some thoughts I’d had earlier in the week. That the military was trying to force the hand of Congress to expand Pinon Canyon by hook or by crook. If there was a disaster out there at this time of year, no one would think twice about allowing the expansion, because it would be to “protect our troops”. grrr….. So, I wrote my congressmen. Told them what I thought of the whole thing. I am still waiting to see what becomes of that.
However, in the meantime, it SNOWED! We have a good foot of the stuff. In fact, it started snowing around 9pm last night and didn’t stop till nearly noon today. I chickened out and didn’t take the kids to school. No way I was going to drive all the way to Gardner and back twice in this weather. Didn’t matter either that Gardner has maybe a 10th of the snow. I wasn’t going to drive in my little light Neon in the snow. Guess I’d better get Dan to fix Blue. (the pick-um-up truck)
We reorganized the work we needed to do for the day, and Dan didn’t go out until about 15 minutes ago. He had to dig the truck out! Dan digs out the truck!
The sun is trying to shine, which means that the clouds are breaking up. If it does clear off, it will be bitterly cold tonight. Not looking forward to that. Nor, the trip to the school bus in the morning.
Oh, we also got an email from the Lt. They’d survived the night in spite of the storm. Even got some supplies dropped to them via a buddy. (Mwahahaha!) Now here’s hoping that they go home in one piece soon!