Winter storm roundup

For the central part of the state it pretty much ended a little after noon. Again, despite various predictions of freezing rain, the most of it here was sleet with just enough freezing rain toward the end to put a crust on it. A good 2-3" of sleet on the ground, mind you, but much better than a glaze of ice an inch thick.

Speaking of predictions of doom, the last I saw of tv news this morning they were saying things like "This last round may be the worst". Which is what they said about the mess we were supposed to get overnight and didn't. What really, really pissed me off was this one weather/news weenie(not sure which), just before I turned it off, finished his prediction of freezing rain and sleet and possible disaster(degree not specified) with "So maybe those disaster supplies won't be a waste after all" with almost- not quite but almost- a little smile. You could almost see the thoughts chasing around his empty head. "We scared hell out of people telling them there'd be ice an inch or two thick around here and power lines down everywhere and sent them off buying everything in sight and it didn't happen. And they're pissed. Just maybe there'll be enough disaster to get us off the hook." Friggin' idiots.

I know that weather prediction is a very inexact science(hell, with some good meteorologists it's almost more of an art) and you can't believe everything that comes out. I know predictions will be off one way or the other many times. But you'd think they would have the honesty to say "Ok, we were wrong about when/how much, thank God, but we still have a dangerous situation that could get pretty bad", instead of basically repeating the same words but downgrading the amount of ice expected with absolutely no reference to any hows or whys the original "WE'RE GONNA DIE!" was wrong.

Further east and south they did get worse, there's a lot of downed power lines and broken utility poles and all the wonderfulness that comes with no power and sub-freezing temperatures and strong north winds. I don't know if they got the amount of ice predicted, just that it was bad enough for serious problems. Cold and no power is worse than hot: if it's hot you can at least go outside and hope for a breeze, if you're cold not only are you freezing but you have to worry about your pipes. And the stuff in the pantry.

Ah well. The dogs are good, I'm home and dinner's started. I just hope the street crews are going to do some major work starting early in the morning, 'cause they haven't done squat today.