Snow!! (Sort of!!)

So yesterday the high temperature in Austin was 78 degrees. I actually had to run my air conditioner the night before to cool my bedroom down when I was trying to fall asleep. So I got up yesterday morning, put on a t-shirt (sigh...) and got on with my day. And then sometime around 4 or 5, it started to get very windy -- and when it's winter in Austin and you hear wind like that, it can only mean one thing: a cold front! (But when it's spring and you hear wind like that, it means, "go find a tornado shelter...") So by the time Echo had eaten her dinner and went to the patio door to go outside, it was around 55 degrees. Over the next few hours, the wind kept howling and the temperature kept dropping, until I eventually heard the unmistakable sound of freezing rain clicking on the windows. And then, at about 11:30, I let Echo outside again, and I thought I caught a glimpse of something white and flaky... so I stood out on the porch (not even thinking that perhaps I should don a coat and some shoes...) and sure enough, there it was -- snow! It was snowing!! I actually started jumping up and down (which may have had more to do with the fact that I was freezing cold than the fact that I was excited). So here are some pictures of the Austin Blizzard of 2008:

Wow! Look at those flakes fly!!

The aftermath...

"Snow" in the bushes... (actually, I think it was more like ice, but it LOOKS like snow, right?)