outskirts: life and times in charlottesville

Snow started gently falling around 3pm this afternoon. The current forecast is for 4-8 inches followed by a bitter cold evening near the 10 degree mark. There is a good chance the village will get shut down for at least 4-8 days. As TJ used to say, one inch equals one day (although to be honest, no one had a clue what he was talking about).

I’ll be sure to keep you posted on Monday. I have a feeling @thecommute and @DailyProgress will have lots of info as well.

Morning Update: This snowpocalypse has crippled the village. Approximately 3 inches made it to the ground. Icicles are forming. Cars are spinning wildly across the area roads. I’m going to risk my life and go outside. I’m hoping that I make it back, but there are no guarantees. May my soul not get eaten by the white beast (aka our one storm of this decade).

After a 64 degree day the village has been crushed by approximately one-third of an inch of snow this evening. Reports from the field indicate that all forms of transportation have been shut down. This is the most severe storm of the season, since only 5 minutes of flurries (total of three storms) have fallen up to this point.

A few reports have made it to me through the storm. They indicate that roads are perfectly clear since it was 64 degrees earlier today, but due to the extreme snowfall I have not been able to confirm the reports.

I urge you to not risk travel in these horrendous conditions. Enjoy the milk and toilet paper that you purchased earlier today when the weather service predicted a 40% chance of flurries with a half inch accumulation possible on tree branches.

Stay tuned for additional coverage as this story develops…

Update: First picture from the field is in! Thanks to the tough reporters out there fighting through the conditions.

Although Ike is about 1200 miles from the village, the torrential rains (ok…a light sprinkle for the past four hours) appears to have flooded Ike’s Underground on the downtown mall. Cleanup is currently underway. Does anyone remember when that basement was just a crack hangout?

Additional Ike coverage expected during the upcoming week.

As it says on the front page of CNN, Ike may cause certain death. So what is that, 50/50 odds?

Should you be out buying some bananas? Looks like Saturday will be the hurricane party day. I seem to recall UVA plays football on Saturday. That would be interesting. Of course, this is only a forecast, not reality…yet…

C-Ville tribal elders love claiming that C-Ville is tops in this and tops in that. I’m sure they will be happy that we are no where to be found in the Best Small Cities in America for 2008 list.

Why are we not in there? Well, that is an easy answer. We don’t qualify as a small city. To be a small city you have to have 50k to 300k people. C-Ville only has around 39.9k. The elders had to fight the government over this number, so they will claim 41k but we know that isn’t the case.

Where is the list for Best Villages in America? I bet we are in that list. Of course the local gang activity (for 12-14 year old bangers) or mob beatings (involving guns and high-heeled shoes as weapons!) of the village might hurt our chances. Just never leave your house after 8pm and the village is lovely…right?

The big question remains…will scenario #2 occur? Will Bertha go right through C-Ville?

Big clouds are here and there. Will anything hit the village?

Update: The storms have built a bit.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will affect north-central Maryland as well as northern and central Virginia…including the far northern and western suburbs of Washington DC through 7:30 PM. Thunderstorms will contain frequent lightning and locally heavy downpours. Some of the stronger thunderstorms will be capable of producing small hail…wind gusts up to 40 mph…and rainfall rates over one inch per hour. The best chance for the strongest storms will be across central Virginia…near Charlottesville.

A bit dark. I love it.

Yesterday evening we had a lovely little torrential thunderstorm decide to camp out on top of C-Ville. I’d never had DirecTV out for so long before. Nearly 40 minutes. I thought I might die being stuck in this village with no satellite feed.

This morning on my one drive/week I noticed a tree had decided to lose its grip on the soaked soil. If this had taken the wires down I’m sure the entire village would have had no power for at least a week. Luckily, the wires held strong.

In what is scheduled to be a record breaking week of heat I’m willing to predict rolling blackouts here in the area. Thousands are still without power from yesterday (how did they survive without being able to watch the Redwings historical victory?).

Not good. My AC has been cranking all day…and it gets hotter for the next week. Ugh. How can humans consider this tolerable? I ran 6.5 miles. I think I lost 10 pounds, but drank 2 liters of water along the way.

One of the more entertaining things to do here in C-Ville is debate when the temperature has passed the threshold of “intolerable level.” Some days it is around noon. Other days 8am. And the worst of all…a number of days where the temperature stays above the threshold.

Today it was around 11am. Time to sit inside with air conditioning and try not to think about it.

For most of the locals around here their brains got toasted when they were young, so they continue to sit outside like lizards, while further reducing brain functionality. Speaking of lizards, when did they become a common species here in central Virginny?

Looking it up it seems like lizards are normal. Perhaps I only freaked out since I never used to see dozens of them sitting around the mall basking in the sunlight. I can’t wait to get parrots, hibiscus, and hula dancers by next summer.

Or maybe my brain has already been boiled by the heat and I am having hallucinations.