Someone on my FB feed posted that some area Home Depots (I think she's in the Atlanta area) are going to stay open and act as shelters for people who are stranded.

Earlier today/this week I had thought "ooh, I'm home on a Tuesday, I can go to the dance I never get to go to!"

Later today I was like "OK, I worked out....eh, I'll just put on sweats and maybe go to bed early" completely forgetting my plan. And now I"m in sweats and cozy and don't want to get dressed and make my hair look OK and all that and go dance. Except, I never get to go to this thing! Sigh. I guess I will chalk it up to "getting over being sick". BOO.

I can't imagine eight hours in a car going nowhere. Good god.

Yes, Home Depot has more than 25 stores open as shelters in Georgia and Alabama.

Spending the night in Home Depot seems kind of awful. Maybe in Bed Bath and Beyond, if I could snag one of the beds...now I'm remembering that book where the kids get trapped in the department store after it closes? Fun!

The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Whozit!

edit: No, that's the kids living in the museum.

I'm most concerned about people in their cars. People are running out of gas, and it's going down to 16.

Ma to everyone out there in this. Wow.

My sister is just wrecked about Frank Almond and the violin. He's been one of her heroes most of her life, and actually she's scheduled to play with him a few weeks from now. For musicians, this is such a violation.

It's horrid. Not only are they putting a world treasure in danger, your instrument is an extension of yourself, your voice. I can't explain how personally gutted I was when my instrument was horribly damaged by someone in college. With an instrument like this it's a tragedy for everyone. And how violent and tragic for him as a human being, it forever changes you. I am absolutely heart sick over it.

Are there any rescue plans for those stranded in their cars in the cold? Can anyone get to them? This is terrible.

In AL, they have buses following sand trucks. And the Nat'l Guard is out.

There are people who have been in their cars for 20+ hours now. My next-door neighbor’s niece was in her car 11 hours (and her cell died at about hour five) and her nephew slept at his middle school.

This one baffles me. Over the weekend, the meteorologists thought the snow would be south of here, but by Monday afternoon, the NWS had issued a winter storm warning for metro Atlanta, and Monday night the TV weather people were saying 1-3" starting about noon. I know because I had one errand I had to run and I left myself a large note reminding me to do it first thing. Despite that, schools and businesses opened as usual, and then between noon and 1:30, they looked out, said "OMG, it’s snowing," and closed. The result was a holiday-weekend-level traffic jam added to snow and then ice. The state and local governments had equipment and de-icing stuff staged, but because of the nearly instant traffic jam, the equipment couldn’t get to the ice.

Officials keep saying that there was no warning. The weather people are trying to stay professional, but it’s clear they’re frustrated. If I were them, I’d be showing clips of Monday night’s weathercast and doing the “I told you so” dance.

The National Guard is out here too, and people have been great about offering shelter and taking food and water to people in their cars.

We're starting to see pictures of people sleeping in Home Depots on lawn chairs and piles of rugs.