Slippery Sunday

This cold spell has been hanging on....  temps in the 20's at night and not much higher during the day.  It's been a few years since I've driven in bad weather, and driving on ice just isn't my idea of a good time.  Our daughter and son-in-law were heading into Granbury to the H.E.B. grocery store today and asked us we'd like to go along.

Bill & I hadn't driven anywhere since last Thursday, and while we could have asked Celeste to pick up the few items we were out of, we decided to go with them.

It's 20 miles or so from Celeste's to the grocery, and there was very little traffic on the road....

 Is it any wonder?

I think we saw less than 10 vehicles from the time we left the house until we got to the grocery.

I doubt if this type of weather happens very often...  there had been no snow plows...  no salt trucks...  no indication that even much traffic had traveled as there weren't even the usual marks that tires leave as a path.  I'm wondering if the county even has that kind of equipment on hand.

I'd guess that it took us at least an hour to go those 20 miles.  Victor was very careful.

The temperature had risen to about 32 degrees as we neared Granbury, and it looked like a snow plow had cleared the main route going through town.  

Of course the parking lot of the grocery store was like an ice skating rink!

That's Victor and Celeste heading into the store.

It took me considerably longer to maneuver my way...  I headed for the puddles...  my theory was that if there was water the ice must be melted.  Well...  my boots are mostly waterproof, so at least I didn't get wet feet...  and I did make it into the store without falling down.

The grocery store was nearly empty of customers, and their shelves were well stocked.  Celeste asked one of the employees if they were getting deliveries...  he told her that they had checked the weather predictions and stocked up well in advance.  Even the fruits and vegetables were quite plentiful and looked fresh.

By the time we headed home, the roads were mostly just slush.  There were even a few spots that the sun (yes!  the sun appeared today!) had dried the road.  As the afternoon went on, the temperature got up to 46 degrees, so that went a long way in melting off that ice.  Now, it's nearly 8pm, and it's only 29, so I hope all that water doesn't turn to ice that's even slicker!

Again, lots of birds at the feeders.  Thank you Judy, for confirming my fox sparrow was indeed just that.  I'm a fairly decent birder, but tend to 2nd guess myself.  Heck, I'm lousy at taking tests... you should always go with your first thought.

Shouldn't be any doubt at all that this is a White-winged Dove.....  so I won't attempt to say it's anything else.  So now we've seen the Mourning dove, the Inca dove and the White-winged dove here.  I guess we could have the Eurasian Collared dove, but I haven't seen one here yet.

I recently finished knitting a sweater for our great-granddaughter, Evie.  Got it mailed off last week and got this photo in my e-mail today...

It's just the color of her eyes!

Evie just turned 2 years old recently...  she's my pride and joy!

Hope y'all are staying warm...

That's All For Today!