Sistah Pat

It’s all coming down.  Snow, sleet, freezing rain, power lines, trees…If it’s up there, it’s coming down.  They actually announced at 8:00 pm that there wouldn’t be any school today.  Very unusual for our school system to make a call that early.  By 6:00 pm, it was beautiful.  Ice storms can be that way.  Everything coated in a glistening layer of ice that catches the light and reflects it back.  I was kind of looking forward to staying up late watching TV.  That didn’t work out well because we lost the satellite signal around 6:30.  Couldn’t pick up anything.  I made a marathon session of movies.  Pacific Terrace, which was halfway decent but not really “edge of your seat” stuff.  Mama Mia, fun…but I’ve seen it before, and Righteous Kill, which was okay but not great.  The internet went out…the tv was out….and I was out of movies so I went to bed at 1:00.  DS woke me up around 7:00 am because he thought it looked like the tree in the front yard was leaning toward the RV and he was afraid it was going to fall.

I didn’t think the tree was leaning.  It was just that the ice weighed down the branches so much that it looked lopsided because it had more branches on one side.  I refused to move the RV because I don’t know if we could get it out of the drive, for one thing, and I don’t know where we’d park it if we could.  I decided it was best to just leave it alone.  After all, that’s what we have insurance for.  I was more concerned about my car, which is also parked under the tree but DS thought it was probably far enough down the drive to be okay.  Ten minutes later, a big branch cracked and fell from the tree and landed perfectly right between the car and the RV.  The car CAN be moved without causing major concern so DS moved it out on the street.  Hope no one slides on the ice and rams into it.  The freezing rain has actually compressed or melted most of the snow we got yesterday but everything is covered in a half inch of ice.  All the roads, all the trees, the power lines, everything.  Five minutes later, another big CRACK and the neighbor’s tree loses a huge branch which is kind of tangled up in the power lines.

Obviously, I’m not going to be able to sleep.  I’m sitting here at the kitchen table and I’ve heard so many loud cracks and seen so many branches fall that I’ve stopped even getting up to see what fell.  I woke up the boys and made them come downstairs to my bedroom.  I guess it’s possible that a tree could fall on the roof and it’s safer downstairs.  Youngest DS called a few minutes ago and said their power is out so they’re all heading over here.  No heat.  I hate to think of them being out driving in this mess.  In fact, more than 100,000 are without power and the rain and ice is still falling.  I went online to look at the weather (the TV is still out although I have a wireless signal again) and they’re calling for another 3 to 5 inches and then more ice.  Hope MY power stays on.  The RV is actually out of propane and we decided not to fill the tank since we wouldn’t be using it for a while.  I wish it was full.  It’s cold out there and I don’t know what we’d do if we lost power.  It would be nice to have the reassurance that we could go out to the RV and turn on the furnace.  Still…I don’t know how comfy it would be if it was housing me, DH, 2 DS, 4 DGC, and one DIL.

The sun’s coming up.  Do I wanna look outside?

 8:20 - I took the picture at the top of the page a few minutes ago.  Pretty…but you can see that I’ve already lost a couple branches from this tree. Then I stood on the front porch and took this picture of the branch that fell between Manny and my car.  While I was standing there, I heard a big crack and another limb fell and took out the fence right next to Manny.   

9:00 - Now we’re back to snow again.  I took this picture at 8:40 so you could see how fast it’s coming down.  Same shot as the one above and look how much snow has accumulated in just 20 minutes.  Along with this new onslaught of snow, the wind has really picked up.  It’s blowing hard and these poor trees are so weighted down with ice, they don’t sway.  They just break. 

I called DS because I was getting worried and he said they weren’t coming over until later.  Said they were all up half the night and they’re all going to snuggle up and try to get a little sleep before they head over.  Didn’t know what to say about that.  Should it have been, “Are you crazy?  Your heat is out and you have two little kids so you need to get over here.” or should it have been, “Good idea.  The roads will be better later on today so just snuggle the kids and maybe the driving conditions will be better later on.”  Didn’t know which way to go so I didn’t say anything. 

10:15 - Taking a quick break.  In times of emergency, domesticity kicks in.  There are now 200,000 without power so I decided I’d better take advantage of what I’ve got.  Got a huge pot of soup going, doing laundry, cleaning like crazy.  Gonna take advantage of the electricity while I’ve got it.

1:30 - I think the storm is over.  The snow stopped, the ice stopped, and the sky is blue again.  Confirming that I am, indeed, a few french fries short of a Happy Meal, I went outside and took a few more pictures.  A loud CRACK overhead sent me scurrying back inside but it’s hard to resist.  Everything is so beautiful after an ice storm.  I’ve pretty well taken up all my space for today so maybe I’ll post a couple of them tomorrow.

DS, DIL and their boys are over here.  That’s fine but I didn’t realize they were bringing their two dogs.  Didn’t think about that.  Savena runs straight in the house and craps in the middle of the hall so I gave Stacy some carpet shampoo and put her to work.  Damn dog.

4:15 - Got a huge pot of beef and barley soup, 2 loaves of homemade beer bread, and a big ole batch of cupcakes for all the kiddos.  I was just making the soup up as I went along and it doesn’t have anything but stew beef, onions, beef broth, diced potatoes, and a lot of barley.  I was going to add some diced tomatoes and a can of veg-all but it tastes really good so I think I’ll leave it alone.  Can’t remember everything I put in it: onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, a little steak sauce, a little soy sauce.  Just like me to fix something everyone’s going to like and not remember how to make it.  Rented three more movies: Kung Fu Panda, Tropic Thunder, and something else.  Oughta keep all the grandkids occupied.

Crap!  They just announced that school will be out until Monday.  400,000 without electricity including 67 schools.  I’d give anything to just hit the road and drive down to Florida.  We could be there by morning.  Unfortunately, DH has to work.  Two weeks of school we have to make up.  We’ll be lucky to get out by the 4th of July.