Ice storm people

By by Jerry H. Gunn

Posted 1:45PM on Tuesday, February 8, 2005

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch. That's what the ground sounds like under your feet after its been covered with sleet and frozen stiff. Saturday, Jan. 29, the driveway was a solid ice sheet. Just before midnight the weather people said the ice was coming and they were not kidding. I took one look at the metal and rubber popsicle that was once my four-wheel drive SUV early Saturday morning and decided, "No Way!" I got out on foot and that's when the crunching started as my feet penetrated the icy layer that covered the winter dormant grass along side the street. The pavement did not crunch under my weight. It was just plain slick and I knew I would hear by bones crunch if I slipped and fell. I moved slowly, carefully, across it. Baby baby steps, baby steps. At times. I walked across the parking lot which provided all the traction of a well-greased cookie sheet, navigating gradually toward a bright familiar yellow sign in the gray gloom. Waffle House was inhabited by refugees from the ice and I joined them. My first word as I entered the place was "COFFEE!" It was the nectar of the gods as the warm and cheery interior of the 24/7 restaurant surrounded me and I began to get warm. The cars parked out front were all decked out for winter - icicles hung from the grills, bumpers and fenders - and I wondered how they got here when I could not even get out of the driveway. Well, that was Saturday, Jan. 29. Fast-forward a week later, to Feb. 5. Young picnickers on the shores of Lake Lanier just could not believe that a week earlier Gainesville was all but shut down by an ice storm. Tiffany Smith recalled she was sledding a week earlier instead of picnicking with friends under a sunny sky and an unseasonable 60 degrees. "It's crazy!," Smith said. "It'll be warm one day and cold the next." Amen to that, but what a pleasant, wonderful difference a week made. Jerry Gunn is a reporter for WDUN NEWS TALK 550, AM 1240 SPORTS RADIO THE TICKET, MAJIC 1029 and accessnorthga.com.