Ice Dust

DH and I came in really really early today because I taught my first university class ever at the charming time of 8:30am, and had not yet printed my syllabus. As we took the Hudson exit off of 71 I absentmindedly caught a warning on the radio "winter weather watch... be careful drivers". It was very confusing at the time. The roads were perfectly dry, there was no precipitation what so ever. DH dropped me off, I headed to my building, printed my syllabus, and was preparing to head off to class when I overhead some people talking about how slippery it was. Strange, I thought.

8:05, I had been inside, away from windows for less than a half hour. I head outside to walk to my class, and see that it is indeed precipitating. Very strange precipitation. If I had to call it something, I would call it sleet, but it was not falling like I normally see sleet fall. It was as if someone had scooped out the remnants of ice from the bottom of an ice crushing machine and was slowly sprinkling them over the city - you know, that gross grainy snow-like ice that hangs out in your freezer. A maintenance man was hurriedly spreading salt around the exits of my building. I walked across the salt, and then hit the unsalted sidewalk, which appeared wet with rain, but was actually wet with ice. Slick! Slippery! The weather today is just so odd.

Anyways, my first class meeting was uneventful. Not very many people were there, but its hard to blame them when its an 8:30am class the morning after a huge OSU football game and the weather is terrible for walking in. I handed out the syllabus and talked through it. My first lecture is on Thursday. I should probably get on with writing that... wish me luck!