Somewhere over in your warm corner of California, you likely heard the panicked screams from the South starting on Sunday morning, as everyone far and wide raided the non-perishable aisles at their local Kroger’s. “Winter is coming! Winter is coming!” rang out the voices in unison across the nation. And then … nothing happened.

Well, not nothing exactly. Actually far from nothing if we’re being fair. Sleet and ice and other forms of wintry mix slushed across the state of Tennessee and our neighbors, but snow? We ain’t got none.

Ice on the other hand? We’ve got that in spades.

I make light of the situation, but it’s actually no joke, really. I know that Yankees Northerners think of us Southerners as sissies when the threats of winter weather loom, but not only are we not equipped to handle plowing and salting the roads, but it’s also the black ice that makes the terrain here so dangerous. Don’t believe me? Check this out.

Our schools are already closed down FOR THE WEEK, as are many businesses, and Mayor Karl Dean declared a state of emergency yesterday. With sub-zero temps and more ice on the horizon, it’s probably for the best that we all be overly cautious.

Mom and I were lucky. We were in Knoxville when the storm hit, and while there was nary a place open for breakfast or lunch this morning, the roads were relatively clear by the afternoon and we managed to get home with no trouble (her driving aside, heh).

I thought we were going to be stranded in the Bluff City tonight (I would have been OK with that), but we got out—and home—just fine thanks to bypassing I-40 and taking 75 instead (Chattanooga was bone dry).

Knoxville in the snow (or ice)(or whatever you want to call it), however, was lovely.

Knoxville will forever be a place I hold dear. My grandparents grew up there, my mom was born there, and my sister and I both graduated from UT.

It’s a stunning, oft-overlooked city in the summer and fall months. And this week, it’s a regular urban Narnia.

And it was even cooler—literally but also figuratively—by night.

I made it home a few hours ago to find no ice on the ground here, though it is hanging low and artfully in the trees surrounding our house. (Yes, we live by the railroad tracks … whether we live on the wrong side or the right side is debatable!)

It looks like the worst is yet to come, so I plan to spend the next couple days bundled up in my home. Hope you all have an ample supply of bourbon and intend to do the same.