Mountain Malfunction

I should be in Colorado right now. But I'm not because I'm a wimp. Or I'm overly cautious. Or I heeded my gut. Whatever. I'm not there right now because of snow --- precisely the reason I wanted to go there in the first place. And to laugh my ass off by being in the same room with Will.

First an explanation. For those not familiar with American geography, the state of Colorado is cut, roughly, in half. To the left is the Rocky Mountains. To the right is flat prairie land that is in distinguishable from the famously flat Kansas. Denver strattles the flat and the mountainous part. If you drive from Texas to Denver, you drive mostly in the flat part, with some exceptions. And it usually doesn't snow that much in the flat part --- the snow usually stays in the mountains. So, as usual, I checked the weather before setting off in my very weather unstable Mustang. And a huge cold front was hitting Denver just as I was about to leave. And, damnit, it was carrying snow from the mountains way deep into the flat part. Most of it was only about an inch deep, but that's just enough snow to send my Mustang skidding into on coming traffic. I even got up at 4 a.m. to see if snow was messing up the flat part. It was.

One really cool thing about the Colorado highway department is they have cameras along the highway. You log onto their website and see live pictures of what shape the roads are in. This photo is off the Eisenhower tunnel. You have to go through this tunnel to get to the ski areas --- which is where I was headed. And if the Eisenhower tunnel is frosty, you're in huge trouble. It was. So here I sit, hoping it'll thaw out by March for spring skiing when wimps like me get brave enough to drive up a mountain.