Day Two Of Wichita Falls Deep Freeze

Day two of being in the deep freeze. You are looking at the mid Thursday morning view from my kitchen window. A view which is about the same as yesterday's mid morning view from my kitchen window.

We are not scheduled to return to being warmed above freezing til tomorrow. And before that happens more snow is scheduled to arrive sometime this afternoon.

Yesterday, around five in the afternoon I had grown stir crazy from being snowbound. So, I layered on the layers and ventured out to the mailbox. I figured if it did not seem too slippery on the walk to the mailbox I'd see if my vehicle was also stable on the icy snow and able to take me to Walmart.

Well.

See that road in the photo. That is Taft Boulevard. About where you can not see the road anymore is where it intersects with Southwest Boulevard. During our last ice event I had trouble getting traction at that intersection. But not too much trouble.

Last night as I headed to the intersection the light was green. I thought I'd sail right through. And then the light turned red, with plenty of room for me to come to a stop. And so I did.

Whilst waiting for the light to return to green I tested to see if I had traction. I did not. The tires spun, without moving me.

I was able to back up, because the traction problem was caused by this intersection having a slight slope, allowing me to slide in reverse.

There were no cars behind me. I tried to go forward. Again I started to slide.

Soon there were cars behind me. I went through an entire light cycle from green back to red, blocking traffic.

I started to back up, again, the cars behind me saw what I was trying to do, and also backed up. This time I backed up far enough that going forward I had enough momentum to go forward.

Trouble then was the light had turned back to red.

But, vehicles heading west on Southwest saw what I was trying to do and stayed put while I was able to turn right to head west on Southwest. And then at the first turn around opportunity I turned around and headed east to Walmart, without further slipping of a serious nature.

No matter how stir crazy I get today I am not venturing out. Not even to the mailbox...