Silver Lining

Seems like most of us are in the same situation. We knew it was coming and Wyoming’s Day Weather podcast was pretty much right on the money.

I awoke at 6 am, theoretically to go to work at 7:30. It was an amazing 33*, warmer than when I went to bed at 22*. I logged into Wyoming’s road report app and checked the webcams further north. Even with the darkness, you could see that Frannie, right next to the Montana border, had snow. Everything south seemed ok. I drank my coffee and started a fire in my wood stove. All the grandkids had spent the night and they were sacked out on the living room floor.

Itty Bitty is still in my mud room and she was doing just fine. I checked webcams again. Frannie was now blowing snow and Greybull was getting snow. I checked my thermometer again and it had fallen to 16*. I texted my boss. “Have you looked at webcams?” We decided to go with the forecast… even with clear roads and simple cold… I was told to stay home and she would cover for me since she’s on the outskirts of Ten Sleep and I am 20 miles out. I texted Megan and Tess and let them know there was no rush to get their kids since I wasn’t going to work.

It was our day to check the cows’ water in the hills and Vernon had left at 6 to try to make the loop before the storm hit too bad. He came back as I was stirring up a pile of pancakes and was happy to sit in front of the fire!

Snow came and occasional wind, but we’ve been lucky and, knock on wood, haven’t got the 40-50 mph winds that much of the state has received.

As I head to bed, it’s now -24* with -40* wind chill. The coldest I’ve seen here has been -55* about 40 years ago. We really don’t need that. All I can say is that this deep cold supposedly kills off pine beetles, so maybe our forests can recover! I know that’s a stretch, but, hey, I’m looking hard for that silver lining!

My ancient windows are almost completely frozen over…

Find me here!

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