I640 was a mess an hour ago but not it's southbound on Alcoa Hwy just across the river.

4+ inches here in beautiful downtown Rockford.

Left Dandridge @ 4 PM on Christmas Eve & was barely able to get home. White out - blizzard - ice - visibility about 20ft., & the defroster mode couldn't get much of the inside fog removed due to the rapid dip in the outside temperature. Both lanes blocked on John Sevier Hwy. between Martin Mill Pike & Government Farm Rd. due to car crash. Turned around, back to Tipton Station & went slowly from there back home. Ice at the entrance to Fox Trace subdivision was almost a deal-breaker!

"There's no place like home" said Dorothy to Toto. They weren't in Kansas any more.

Looks like the Knoxville newspaper took the day off yesterday. Nothing in the e-edition about the snow, road problems, power outages. Not really a local paper.

3 inches here.

My daughter and her husband and children usually come to my house on Christmas morning to open the gifts I have for them. She lives litteraly 5 minutes from my house. Yesterday we decided it might be best for her to get the gifts early and take them to her home to open this morning. When she arrived it was already snowing but didn't show any inkling that it would lay on the roads. The temperature was well above freezing. But before we could get them all loaded in her car, the snow had suddenly covered the roads. She made it home ok but wasn't able to make it up her driveway to her house and had to park beside the road.

Other than being an absolutely beautiful snowfall, maybe it'll also prevent the spread of the virus. At least maybe for Christmas day.

Many people are without power in Knox County. I've been without it since 5:02 yesterday afternoon. Not sure when we'll get our power back on? They need to take care of the larger outages first. My house is in a yellow area. I think it goes red, purple, green, yellow black. I feel sorry for the individuals in black. No telling when they'll get their power back on.

I brought in an extra car battery that I have and rigged it with an accessories adapter to keep our phones charged.

Anyone else here without power? But of course if they are on a home computer and are without power I doubt they can read this.

No xfinity cable TV since before 5 PM yesterday. Web site & chat says it will be back by 9PM today. Ha - a likely story! I do sympathize with their techs - I wouldn't want to work on Christmas day either. However, with enough incentive - like maybe triple time pay - I would consider it! I sent them a blistering note through their satisfaction questionnaire after the chat. I threatened to cut the cable & start streaming. My cable bill is astronomically high. I'm ashamed to even reveal it. I AM going to explore streaming options.

Any suggestions?

I've had Comcast internet and TV for years. AT&T now has fiber to my house (not just the closest major street) and I took the plunge just last Monday for their internet. Because of my good credit, I paid nothing for installation and activation which took the guy three hours. And I was tired of paying for cable TV and have an Amazon firestick and several subscriptions. So I got an antenna and sure enough, it works great. Local stations mostly is what I wanted. But other channels are available. I highly recommend this setup. I'm very pleased.

Comcast said I had 100 but it was more like 5-10! 100 fiber seems to be good enough for everything including working from home.

I worked yesterday, as did little Fisch who did himself a favor by not being ticketed for a moving violation this year, so he was eligible to work at my company as a personal vehicle driver. It's a decent Christmas gig for a young person, if you're capable and can get in. The work is hard, but the pay is good.

I got off around noonish and wasn't really worried because the forecast didn't have anything happening until around 4:00 pm. Based on what I saw in the morning, I figured everything would be pretty much wrapped up by four and didn't have a whole lot of concern. That was about the time the temperature started dropping and the breeze turned into wind. I did the survey on the way home out of habit and an ongoing sense of curiosity. I stopped by my go-to grocery store only to find an invasion of the unmasked was in progress. "Seriously?" I thought to myself. It's Christmas Eve and these people are launching an attack in the grocery stores? This town is going to hell in a hand basket. I tried to stay two aisles away and hoped God would be merciful to everyone else in the store.

The temperature continued to drop from the mid forties by twoish and I figured everything was copacetic. I was concerned about the ice line I noticed in the storm, but was pretty sure the ice wouldn't be able to stick and would only serve as a warning. It coincided with the start of the big temperature drop on the weather app I was using. I've been working as a Teamster in the trucking industry since 1977. I've come to know weather and indeed my livelihood has been dependent on knowing when to bail out for personal survival. It's also important to note that whatever doesn't get done before the storm, will have to be cleaned up in the slop afterwords. You don't have the option of inventing new, bizarre, political philosophies to justify your laziness and incompetence when you deliver packages. Everything is in the real world. The wrecks are immediate and causation is readily established. Medicines and presents either show up or they don't. People are held accountable for doing their job. Poor decisions are a big deal. It's not like being County Mayor.

About this time I realized we didn't have firewood and figured, "Hell, I'll just run to Mayo's, buy half a rick and things will be good." So I hopped in the truck, noticed that the temperature had dropped below 39 degrees and headed west to the Mayo's near Pellissippi. Mayo's had six rolls of kindling left. The wood guy said they'd been sold out of firewood for three days. Welcome to the world of essential workers. When I got back into my truck I noticed the temperature had continued to drop. The professional driver tip I'm fixing to pass on to you is this. 32 degrees really is a game changer. I remember vividly the night the Blizzard of 93 moved in. This reminded me of that. The wind chills the roads and bridges ahead of the freezing air and there is very little time between the time the temperature reaches freezing point and the time it actually freezes. It's not like waiting for the ice-maker to make more cubes when you're hitting the margaritas, it's fast, and I got worried about little Fisch, so I called him. He was getting it and had about thirty stops left when I told him I didn't give a damn and that when the temperature hit 33 he was done. Find out where his boss wanted him to leave the packages. Then I called his boss, left a message and texted him. Lest anyone think we don't take our duty to our customers seriously, consider that this was my son, whom I trained and loved and had the utmost confidence in, that I was coaching to deliver right up until the last minute. At 34 degrees, I called him to tell him to shut it down and he had only 7 stops left. The quickest thing for him to do was finish and head home, which is what did. Scared the bejesus out of me. There is an ethical line that is not always clear between one's duty and obligations to one's fellow man, and to yourself to complete an assigned task, but it's moments like this, where that ethical line must be determined that make being an ethical person difficult. These moments may not happen often, thank God, but they'll test you when they do.

Publix ended up having firewood, I filled up a grocery cart full and the self checkout cash machine jammed up while I was trying to pay and get home. I had talked to little Fisch before I went in, and was then wondering if the shoe was on the other foot and that maybe I was the one screwing up the whole time. I was looking out the window at Publix, the snow was coming down and now it was me fixing to get stuck. From Publix at Northshore to my house behind Westtown was starting to look like a two hour trip. The Gilligan's Island of snowstorms, so to speak. At any rate I owed $49.96 and the machine had jammed on a fifty and was sending bizarre messages. After 47 seconds that seemed like an hour I said, "I'll tell you what, I owe you 49.96 and your holding a fifty, how about you keep the change and we just call it even." She said okay and that's why Publix customer service is the best in the industry.

We both made it home in short order, there is a fire burning, Christmas is wonderful and, though I don't think I have the covid, there are many idiots at my workplace (you know who you are) and I didn't want to be the guy in this family story that brought the virus to my wife's family. I'm happy here, with Kimber the wonder schnauzer, and she seems happy enough to have me as company. She even pooped early today, leading me to believe she is smarter than I give her credit for and probably smarter than me. Life during covid may not be perfect, I worry about my neighbors and members of my community, but it has its moments of peaceful existence.

If you've read this far, I sincerely thank you for indulging me. I've been writing almost exclusively about covid for the last ten months, straddling publishing lines of the various forum owners that have been kind enough to indulge my style during this time of crisis. I needed to write about something else and I thank you for reading. It's the best Christmas present I could have gotten.

" I stopped by my go-to grocery store only to find an invasion of the unmasked was in progress."

Hah.

Likewise, me & the Mrs. stopped by our nearby convenience store. She goes in & I'm in the car. I'd say about 80% were unmasked. A rough looking guy in a pickup pulls up next to us on my side, goes in maskless & meanwhile I've decided to lay my cards on the table & ask him "are you not concerned about getting COVID?" I would preface that with "sir, I apologize if I seem rude, but are you not concerned..." when the wifey came out I told her to wait for him to come out. She protested. I kept watching him inside & suddenly he seemed to have vanished. Probably went to the bathroom I suspect. I interpreted that to be a bad omen & we left. What goes on in these peoples' feeble minds? I just don't understand. I've heard some theories, but wanted a first person account. Possibly, fate could have prevented me from sustaining multiple gunshot wounds. Ouch!

Moral of the story: mind your own business.