No Ice...Thank God

So…the winter storm warning for the High Plains has been cancelled. No ice storm today… I think. But the potential still exists; it’s raining moderately heavy as I type and the temp is 36 degrees. Not a nice day to be out and about. It’s a lot worse elsewhere, though.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Roads were treacherous Monday from the Plains into parts of the Northeast as a storm spread a coating of ice and freezing rain that blacked out a more than half-million homes and businesses. At least 13 traffic deaths were linked to icy roads.

Winter weather warnings and advisories were posted along a cold front that stretched from Texas to New Hampshire. The wintry weather was expected to continue through midweek.

A state of emergency was declared for the entire state of Oklahoma, said Michelann Ooten, spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Management. Fifty industrial generators and three truckloads of bottled water were to be shipped to blacked-out areas. Missouri had declared an emergency on Sunday and put the National Guard on alert.

Oklahoma utilities said some 400,000 customers were blacked out as power lines snapped under the weight of ice and falling tree branches, and utilities in Missouri said more than 100,000 homes and business had no power there. Roughly 11,000 were blacked out in southern Illinois.

[…]

On ice-covered Interstate 40 west of Okemah, Okla., four people died in "one huge cluster of an accident" that involved 11 vehicles, said Highway Patrol Trooper Betsey Randolph.

Eight other people also died on icy Oklahoma roads, and Missouri had one death on a slippery highway.

As I said yesterday: I’m not liking this. And I won’t travel if this sh|t continues apace.

Stuff I really like… Part 29:

Geico commercials. Some are just strange:

And some are simply classic:

“Pull that string one more time. I dare ya!” That makes me laugh right out loud every frickin’ time I see this ad. And speaking of LOL moments, there’s this one, too:

The ad isn’t running any longer (it should run forever, in my book), but it’s most-definitely the weirdest of the bunch. I lurves me some weird. I really DO. And Geico delivers…with interesting, funny, and oh-so-prolific ads. I wish others flogging their products would take a page out of Geico’s book. The company never runs any one theme into the ground, and they’re always coming up with new stuff. I admire them for that.

But I’m not switching my insurance, though.

I’m mulling over a serious post but haven’t quite got it sorted out yet. The post involves that world-class twit Bill Moyers and his program on PBS… “Bill Moyers Journal”… which I happened to watch in its entirety this past Friday night. Sleeping with the enemy, as it were. What’s up with that, anyway? Maybe there’s something else screwed up in my life at the moment…other than my circadian rhythms.

I’m beginning to worry.