The Snowing of Atlanta

Atlanta has this thing about snow. It fears it. No, that's not too strong a word for its apprehension about anything resembling white stuff falling out of the sky. As an Iowan, unless it gets 5 or more inches deep and is blowing around in a blizzard, I ignore it. I do take note of driving conditions, but that's about it. Since I've moved South I've changed my thoughts about snow. Well, not snow per se, but my fellow Atlantans when the white stuff starts falling. They panic. Yesterday was a case in point.

Friend Pam (she who comments on this blog every now and then) flew into Atlanta to set up for a trade show. That's what her company does. Her morning flight was canceled because of the weather. Mind you, it wasn't doing much of anything here at 9:15 in the morning, but Delta decided it would be better to cancel the day before than the day of service. I don't fault the airlines. They're screwed no matter what they do. By ten in the morning it's snowing. It's light fluffy snow, enough to coat the ground and the cars. Pretty, especially since I know it will be gone in a day or two. No wind, temps are in the mid-thirties.

Friend Pam arrives later in the afternoon, her flight delayed due to the bad weather in Atlanta. Well, unless the airport had completely different weather than we were experiencing, the weather didn't suck. She found that quite amusing. We meet, go to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It is at this point we note the Lack of People. Midtown Atlanta Saturday evening is like the Vegas Strip on the weekend. You can hardly drive anywhere without sitting in traffic for ages. Last night -- no traffic. Popped right into the restaurant, got a seat, ate a great meal. That never happens.

Then we adjourned to the Borders so we could sit, sip coffee and b.s. Borders closed at 8 p.m. due to the severe weather. Okay, at this point there is no snow, the streets are DRY and the temp at 35 degrees. So we went to a Cariboo Coffee. Ditto. Off to a Barnes & Noble. Closed. Starbucks? They remained open until ten and then booted us out due to the inclement weather. It's now 34 degrees, still no precipitation and no ice on the streets.

So we retreat to Pam's hotel and order (what we found out after the fact) were the World's Most Excellent Glasses of Wine(TM) The flat screen TV in the bar is turned to CNN and they're taking about the ONE THOUSAND (1,000) flights canceled because of the bad weather. We're looking at each other wondering what the hell is going on here.

Pam had an excellent laugh out of all this. Compared to the 5 inches of snow and sub-zero temps Iowa's been enduring the last few days, Atlanta is a weekend at the beach. The evening was fun, if nothing more than for the Twilight Zone-ness of it all.

General Sherman went about sacking Atlanta the hard way. He didn't need to bombard the city and burn it to the ground. All he needed was to walk up to one to Atlantan, peer quizzically at the sky and ask, "Is that snow?"

*The snowman is in our neighbor's yard. It's all decked out in Braves regalia, of course.