The Great Blizzard of 2006 has now been replaced by the Great Deep Freeze of 2011 in the annals of Albuquerque weather oddities.

It was oddly warm on Monday, 50 degrees before the temps started plummeting. It rained, then snowed, then everything froze. We were mostly prepared for Tuesday to be a bad day. I took home files in case I couldn't make it back to the office. Everything was an ice slick in front of my place, so I called a "work from home" and spent most of the day doing just that.

It was my birthday, and I called off the dinner out early on. I would dine at my brother's home and watch the Lobo dismantle Air Force for their first away win of the conference season. When I walked home after the game, it seemed to be rather cold.

And it was. The next day we wouldn't get above 10 degrees. My car was dead (it had started up fine on Tuesday afternoon). And being outside was not much of an option.

Natural gas outages began cropping up around New Mexico. Residents were asked to conserve both electricity and gas. A run on electric heaters and blankets hit every store that was actually open. And it just got worse.

It wasn't the snow (which was a couple inches at most in Albuquerque, and turned to mostly dust in the bitter cold) or icy roads (those had cleared up, too), it was the temps. We broke records all over the state. -7 was our record low Thursday morning. And it was apparent, early on, that the projected temps of 30s-40s were not going to show up.

I finally got my car running Thursday afternoon, thanks to a jump from my brother's cab. It felt warmer, which is strange to say about temperatures in the 20s. Friday was a little better, and I made it back into work that day.

But three days of being confined to quarters made a lot of people a little nuts, including myself. This was not New Mexico weather. This was crazy.

I started to feel better by Saturday afternoon. Even with all the failures of the week, I'd made it through with electricity, gas and a car that came through its deadness with no lingering after effects.

My laundry got done, and I went to Wal-Mart to stock up on some needed supplies. While most people seemed to be buying lots of crap food for the game today (Packers are my pick), I was mostly picking up stuff on the list I compile as things run out at home. But I got some crap food, too.

The checkout lines were long, and I had to go through the regular line because of a box of 12 votive candles that are sold individually. In front of me was a college girl with a grocery cart full of liquids (2 liters and Kool-Aid) and snacks (dips, chips and enchilada makings). She was wearing gray sweats and a black stretch top that would have seemed regular had it not been barely 30 outside at the time. I was in a wacky thick sweater and my black leather jacket. Inside, my ensemble was a bit much, but just walking outside made me feel great about wearing so much clothing.

She seemed to be looking for someone behind me. And then she readjusted everything she was wearing. From pulling up her sweats, pulling down her top and then, in an interesting maneuver, shaping her breasts. And then she turned around my way again and looked for...someone.

Was it me? Was she looking for me? Was this a signal?

Things are beginning to heat up again in Albuquerque.

Matt Worley is affected by the weather at times.