Winter Wonderland ... or Frozen Nightmare?

Well, I am finally home. The flight got in around 1:00. Much to my surprise, Northwest had gotten my luggage to Austin before me, and in one piece. I think it was to their surprise, too: the nice woman at the baggage office looked at my I.D. and then, for good measure, looked at it again.

Most interesting sight: cabbing into downtown where NOTHING WAS MOVING. Literally. We drove down Sixth Street from I-35 to Congress and saw maybe half a dozen people. When we turned onto Congress, we were the only car between Town Lake and the Capitol. Like a "Dawn of the Dead" movie.

Austin's Finest Daily Newspaper has dozens of staff and reader photos of "The Storm of 07," as it is being called. Sidebar: while they were at it, they could have called it "The Storm of 007," which would give it some James Bond panache and cleared up any confusion about its placement in the millennium. Let's just hope we don't have any once-in-a-millennium storms in 2107, 2207, and so on.

My point is, the photos give some idea of just how DIFFERENT Austin looks. And it still looks that way after three days, which is amazing in itself. On the rare prior occasions when it's snowed in Austin, it was all gone by the end of the day.

Now that my job of getting home is over, I can focus on my other job. Back to work ...