Beware the drift

While watching various weather reports on TV this weekend, I heard many a weatherperson issue warnings re: blowing snow and to beware of the drift. Honestly, I was not sure what 'the drift' was. I initially thought that drift was synonymous with ditch - when you are driving and you slip on ice and run off the road, your car is now in the ditch. Given that the ditch is generally not a good place to be, this seemed reasonable. Driving home from Mason City this weekend, I was enlightened as the the true meaning of the phrase. When you have fresh powder snow covering flat, open fields and 35-40mph winds, the wind picks up the powder and moves it (inches of it) into the road. The roads had recently been plowed, but there were patches covered in an inch or two of snow on stretches of the highway that were surrounded by open fields. The blowing snow also makes it hard to see - especially when a semi-truck passes you at high speeds and kicks up additional snow into the wind. When that happens, you can't see anything at all, and you very nearly have a panic attack.

All ended well...I made it home safely and Raul and I had a good weekend - we ran lots of errands (several large storage containers were purchased to house all the recent acquisitions to my yarn stash.) I think Raul and I have an understanding that I am not to buy anymore yarn for some time. I'm very excited about my new yarn, and I have schemes for several new knitting projects like this and this. I have yet to knit a sweater, so we'll see how it goes.

Here's a picture at the start of my drive home to Iowa City on Saturday. Northern Iowa has gotten so much snow that the snow banks are enormous - here is the one located at the outlet of my Mason City apartment complex:

And for good measure, here is a picture of a very lonely and snuggly Greta. She was happy to see us this weekend, and she sends her love!