MUSHY'S MOOCHINGS: IS THAT ALL THERE IS?

Saturday, March 01, 2008

IS THAT ALL THERE IS?

Is that all there is,
is that all there is
If that's all there is my friends,
then let's keep dancing
Let's break out the booze and have a ball
If that's all there is

(Written by Stoller & Leiber)

It never fails that my friend Bruno will send me an email and tell me to get ready…batten down the hatches…there’s a snow of the way!

However, I live in a valley that runs along Walden Ridge from Chattanooga to Knoxville. The ridge drops off from the Cumberland Plateau west of Harriman. Once weather systems hit that ridge they usually go north of here, on through Morgan County, through Anderson County, and then sweeps northeast of the city of Knoxville in Knox County.

Therefore, when I looked out my garage door one morning last week after Bruno gave me the heads-up, all I saw was a little frozen percept on the hood of my truck! Ten miles north there was 10 to 11 inches on the ground, parts of Knoxville got 4 to 6 inches, and Mt. LeConte in the Smoky Mountains got 22 inches. Mushy got zip!

To illustrate how much the ridge affects our weather, there have been two tornadoes just 4 miles up the road toward Wartburg over the past three years. The storms are funneled their direction, leaving our area protected. Now that I don’t mind…but couldn’t it just push the snows over our way and let me enjoy snows like we used to! What happened…did the mountains push up higher over the last 20 years?

The last big snow here was in 1993…a doosey of a blizzard…yes, an actual blizzard with sub-zero temps and chill factors, high winds blowing 3 and 4 foot drifts, and about 10 inches of actually snow fall.

In our old house, I slept upstairs with no heat except from the waterbed used. I remember our little house shuttered but stood up against the 50 and 60 MPH gusts, but it made a terrible howling sound as it rounded the corner of the house where I lay wide-eyed with the cover up under my neck!

There was a time when this area enjoyed several “deep” snows each season, some lasting over two weeks before slowly melting. Once, while I was going to UT, there was a deep snow and a hard freeze that lasted a couple of weeks. Bill, you remember Bill from my UT tales, and I “played” outside like kids under the street and security lights almost every night for over a week. We even nailed an aluminum lawn chair to a pair of water skis, minus the little fin on the bottom, and slide down a hill between our houses until we could hardly walk back inside!

But today it seems these little dustings are all we are going to get. So, it appears that that’s all there is!

It appears even the Crocus know it's over for this season...these popped up just after the little snow appeared!

13 comments:

That 1 Guy said...

Winters in northern Illinois have been tame for the last few years. Well, compared to how they were when I was growing up. We had some real doozies back then.

Heh... figures. I move to California, and they have one of the worst/best winters for snow, ever! Of course, most folks back home get mad when I say that I envy them...

Shrinky said...

You are truly blessed, my friend to live in such a wonderful place, even the weather conspires to protect you!

PRH said...

40s and sunny tomorrow, but by Tuesday another snow storm for west Ohio...or so they say. Usually we get a day or two of warm weather in February and March, but no Global Warming here this year.

Not a Granny said...

I guess I shouldn't complain about the cold here in Florida...right?

My tomatoes, green peppers, Jalepenos, peas, cucumbers are all growing very nicely.

Buck said...

Ah. A fondness for snow is something we don't share, Mushy. After living in the Great White Nawth (US Division) for 15 years or so, I've seen ALL the snow I can handle, and then some. We get just enough of it here on The High Plains of NM to remind me, ever so gently, what it was like, but not enough to be a real PITA. Well, most of the time, anyway.

Chris said...

We didn't get didly here in West Knox either. A light dusting at best.

Lin said...

Definitely no icy Bruno-mobile there. But don't let the crocus plants fool ya - I've seen them buried under 6" of snow the next day. I don't think
we're done with winter yet, even on this far side of your ridge.

FHB said...

Those flowers are purdy. We have the same tale to tell here. I remember the blizzard that hit us in Ft. Worth in the late '70s, and throwin' snowballs at cars and shit, but since then it's been few and far between.

Our weather ether comes up from Mexico or down from Canada. Depending on where the jet stream is we ether swelter or freeze. Last week we had one day when it got up to 92, but two days later it was in the 40s. The local joke has always bee "If you don't like the weather, just wait a while."

Anonymous said...

I'd hate to think you were missing out Mushy..I am loading a dump truck full of snow to dump in your backyard..I have lots to spare....:))))))))))

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

FHB - East Tennessee has the same weather joke. It's beautiful here today, in the 60s, tomorrow it will be 70, and Wednesday is snow flurries!

Robert - Bring it on...we'll sip something good and watch'er melt!

david mcmahon said...

A lawn chair and water skis? !! You could be at the Olympics in Beijing!

Nice focus on the crocus!

BRUNO said...

I never fail, eh? Well, I almost did for THIS post---me and the wife were busy tryin' to get our disaster-mess outta the way, so we can walk around the house again, instead of mountain-climbing over the fallen trees!

Might have a few more "nasty" pics for you in a couple more days---looks like another round of "transitional-weather"---thunderstorms tonight, followed immediately by SNOW, and/or ICE, on Tuesday!

I think I'll check YOUR forecast for the week, and see if it's too late to pass some of this late-season crap on to YOU...!

Jose said...

You are posting about snow and tornadoes and I am experiencing summer like days here in Phoenix. It's like two different worlds. Oh and by the way, heck of a nice truck.