that was an abrupt change in the weather

This morning the walk to uni was quite pleasant--it has been cold enough since the last warm snap that the snow had re-frozen into a nice, easy to walk upon surface, and all of the streets and walkways once again had traction. Today, at 13:00 I walked over to the Library for the ritual posting of the newly completed thesis by one of our nearly-done PhD students, and while the weather had warmed up, the walk way between the two buildings was still a nice, dry walking surface.

At 15:00, on the other hand, I decided I would pack up my computer and head home and do more work from there, and was most surprised to go outside to discover that it was raining, and that all of the roads and walkways on campus consist of a layer of water over very slippery ice. The gravel which had been spread over the ice has long since sunk into the ice and then a thin film of ice frozen over it, so that there is nothing but a smooth, highly polished, ice surface under the film of water. Needless to say, it was not so pleasant walking across campus to the path I take home. Luckily for me, no one is using that path yet besides me, so instead of being ice it was just slushy snow, so the walking was much easier, and I made good progress till I reached my own neighbourhood and had to walk on the road again, which, while not as treacherous as those on campus, are still rather icy and unpleasant walking. This is so not the weather I want! Give me dry, fluffy, snow! Not wet, slippery ice...