You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
Snow-magheddon.
I woke up to a monsoon of white.
It was so much snow, it looked like a sorority pillow fight had erupted on my front lawn.
By 8am, there was 2 inches of snow.
2 inches in Nashville is like 20 inches in Chicago.
By the end of the day, some parts of Middle Tennessee will see close to a foot of snow.
Much of what is on the ground is ice.
And when it’s ice, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Nashvillian or an Eskimo.
When it’s ice, you are going to slip and slide and your driving skills and patience will be tested.
So I begin driving toward Nashville.
The morning crew is on live, and they need content. They are going wall to wall, blowing out Good Morning America and other programming.
They are talking their asses off, but they need help.
That’s my job to provide stuff that they can air.
So I stop outside my sub-division and using a selfie stick and a iPhone 6, I begin shooting what we call walk and talks.
It’s basically me walking around showing you what is going on behind me.
I sent in half a dozen walk and talks that were used on air in the 8 hours of continuous coverage we provided starting at 4am.
I sent 20 other videos that show highways and cars sliding and horrible weather.
The farther north I traveled the worse the terrain.
I get into Davidson County and it’s spitting bb’s. I am squinting. It’s like a sand storm of frozen salt blasting me in the face.
It’s tough to form sentences. My teeth are chattering and my lips are dry and cracked.
I’m glad to only be out of the car for a minute or two.
I don’t think I ever shut off my car or the heater.
It is my mobile refuge as I roll through Armageddon.
I go to Murfreesboro Road, a major thoroughfare in Nashville.
The slight incline is causing major difficulties for 18 wheelers and rear wheel drive cars.
I hear the sounds of tires burning on icy asphalt.
RRRRRROAR!
Smoke and screeching and exhaust.
It’s a mess.
People are piled up on the side of the road.
A jack-knifed truck blocks 2 lanes of traffic.
Horns are blaring and tempers are short.
I walk up to a car on the side of the road.
I wipe the driver window and I see the car is abandon.
“Where did the driver go?” I say aloud.
I end up downtown and interview a nice couple from Australia.
“How often does it snow down under?”
“Every 150 years,” the Aussie says with a grin.
“We wanted to go to the Country Music Hall of Fame,” his wife says. “But it was closed.”
“You know why it was closed?”
“Why?”
“Because we’re southerners. We can’t drive in this white stuff. So we couldn’t get to work to let you in.”
She laughs.
“Sorry.”
More content is a good thing.
I head down to 2nd avenue.
The music from the Hard Rock Café is blaring. The trees that line the street are thick with ice, branches straining under the weight.
One tree has broken and lies on the sidewalk.
Drivers are nervous as they proceed under the arch way of swollen white.
“You can drive through there?” I ask a driver.
She holds up her hand and crosses her fingers.
“I’m nervous.”
By mid afternoon, I’m standing on the sidewalk doing live shots.
“Hey there’s a shirtless guy behind you,” my camera man says.
I look back.
I see a Moby Dick looking dude with a big white belly and no shirt.
“Are you cold?”
“no I’m from Wisconsin,” he says bouncing down the icy sidewalk.
I laugh.
“From Wisconsin,” I reiterate. “It’s like a football game broke out.”
My cameraman snickers as people driving up the road honk their horns and yell at me.
It is a long day, 13 hours in all, by the time I finally roll into my driveway.
I’m thankful I am safe.
I have passed a waste land of abandoned cars on the side of the interstate.
I have seen anger and wrecks and animated ferocity.
My shirtless live shot quickly takes on a life of its own on social media, being liked and reposted.
I have heard from old friends all over the country.
Snow-Magheddon 2016 is exhausting and also broadcasting gold.
Life’s Crazy™