Mary's Blog Corner: Icy Blast

Well, this winter has certainly been one to remember. It has been cold...really cold...unlike anything we have had in the last several winters. We have also had more snow than we have been accustomed to in the previous couple years. Schools have used all of their built-in snow days and parents are moaning every time they have another day of kids home from school.

For the most part, I honestly don't mind the bitter weather. The house is warm and I don't have to be outside in the elements much and I am loving not having any outdoor work like mowing and weeding. It's almost like a mini vacation for me, because during the summer months, the huge yard takes so much of my time that in the winter I feel liberated from having the constant pressure of lawn and flower garden care.

Yesterday, however, we got an ice storm that even I got tired of pretty quickly. It started overnight on Tuesday while we were sleeping. I kept waking up to the noises and clicks that a house makes when the electric is blinking on and off. I drifted into an uneasy sleep until daybreak. The electric was still on and I quickly made myself a cup of coffee. It was not a moment too soon, because within 15 minutes Steve and I heard a loud noise, kind of like an explosion, and we looked out our office window just in time to see the electric pole halfway up our road (between us and Josh) topple and lay across the road. Simultaneously, our electric blinked off for the last time.

I do not do very well without modern conveniences. I miss the internet and water and lights when I don't have them. Fortunately, our propane heat is not run through electric and so the house stays warm when there is a power outage. We also have a finicky small generator, which Steve hooked up for a couple of hours so I could make a pot of soup and wash a few things, but we can't turn the computers on and of course we didn't have cable anyway, so even if we could have, we would have still been without internet. After a couple of times of the generator blowing fuses, at 7:00 we turned it off and sat in the dark for the rest of the evening. I did get a flashlight out and do a little bit of reading, but I was happy to go to bed at 9:00.

All over Lancaster County, people are/were without power. Basically, it had snowed for a little bit overnight and then changed to freezing rain, which turned everything into ice. It was beautiful but dangerous. Trees fell and branches were scattered everywhere. When I went out to take a few pictures, it was almost scary because the trees in the neighbor's woods were breaking and falling and there was a constant popping and cracking noise. It was unsettling and I kept looking up to see if anything was going to fall on my head.

When we first called PPL to report the power outage, a recording told us that we could expect to have our power restored by Saturday evening (this was Wednesday!). However, when we called again this morning, the recording told us that "most" in our area would be back on by 11:00 pm tonight. Hopefully, that most includes us, but I am not holding my breath. In the meantime, I was more than happy to leave my electricless home and go to work, where I could enjoy several hours of the luxury of internet and could use the bathroom without worrying about the tank refilling with water.

If nothing else, the storm gives people a lot to talk about. This winter will be remembered for its cold and snowy weather as well as the Ice Storm that hit on February 5. Here are a few pictures:

This is looking up our road. You can see the telephone pole about half way up the hill that Steve and I saw fall across the road.