Only in Texas...

...can it be 80 degrees one day (yesterday) and snowing the next (today).

I'll say one thing for this Arctic storm: It pretty much delivered as promised. They'd been talking about this all week on the radio and TV, and, for the most part, everything that was supposed to happen, did. I was pretty sure that the public schools would be in session today, and I was likewise fairly sure that the college would close before my first class to teach this afternoon. The kids at the middle school got über-excited when they saw the falling flurries outside, but the adults in my evening group at the college are undoubtedly happy not to have to make a late-night drive in frozen weather.

I'm sure that readers of this blog who hail from much colder climes always laugh to themselves when they hear us Texans get all excited about a little bit of true winter weather...but hey, it is a novelty around here. And it's always fun to turn the TV on and watch the local news reporters standing out in the cold as the station shows the same video clip of cars and trucks spinning out on icy bridges over and over again. Since it only happens a time or two every year out here, I hope nobody can begrudge us all the attention that such weather receives.

Oh, and last night on Texas Overnight, Charley Jones wondered why all the people who moved down here from the North didn't somehow raise the collective driving IQ of Texans in winter weather (which, granted, is often around the idiot level). My theory is that there are two parts to the equations: 1) Texans don't know how to drive in winter weather, and 2) People from out-of-state don't know how to drive in winter weather in Texas. (I would have called him and offered that opinion, but I was sensible enough to not use a cellphone in a driving rain--what an ironic name for that--with the temperatures falling.)

Tomorrow morning should be interesting, as my school district doesn't like to do late starts (and closing for the day would be pointless if it's really getting up to 50 tomorrow). I'm guessing that things will be on as scheduled, and we'll all just have to be extra-careful in getting there. Now I just hope that my before-school students will make it in (or at least call me if they can't) and that there will be a director to let me in. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my unscheduled break; be safe out there if you have to go anywhere tonight.

Animal stories, part 1: A squirrel, having decided to take a peek in the chimney of a house in Wisconsin, was in for quite a surprise when it fell down the chimney and into a fire in the fireplace. (The squirrel was confused but unharmed.)

Animal stories, part 2: A man in New York state was accused of spray-painting three goats in another man's barn (and, in an even odder twist, left pornographic magazines on the barn floor).

Praise the Lord and pass the (fake) ammunition: A North Carolina pastor brandished a gun to make a point during a recent sermon. Nobody was hurt--the gun was "a toy prop"--but the pastor had a felony conviction, so he was hauled off to jail for possessing the gun.

Failed pickup line of the week: "Is that a guitar in your pants, or are you just glad to see me?"