The Impending Storm

St. Louis is once again in the throes of a major winter storm - an ICE storm!

You have to remember, I was without power for five (5) days last August when it was in the high 90s and over 100 degrees. Lost hundreds of dollars worth of food in both of my freezers. But I was working and able to enjoy the air conditioning at work and charge my cell phone, so it was alright. It made a mess in the freezers, and required lots of stinky cleaning.

Then, there was the ice storm the beginning of December - right - just six (6) weeks ago. Lost another freezer full of food, had the old phone line, cable and electric wires ripped from my house. Spent about four (4) days staying at my dad's house because I couldn't get mine warm enough. Had to pay a licensed electrician a bunch to hook the electric back. Just got the darned phone company to remove the wire (have VoIP), and finally feel like I'm somewhat back to normal . . . . and now this!

So - I have replaced all the batteries in my flashlights, washed and dried my hair, the dishes are done, my pantry's stocked, and everything's ready.

What do you want to bet that this time, the electric stays on???

We'll see! This storm is scheduled to last through at least Monday, maybe into Tuesday. Keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer for us poor folks in the Midwest!

What To Do with a Yard Full of Storm Damaged Trees

First buy an expensive chain saw. Chop into small-ish pieces. Leave strewn all over yard. Borrow a few plastic trash cans. Fill with debris. Scrape off several knuckles and gouge out large chunks of your hands. Cuss. Scratch everywhere between your fingertips and shoulders with branches. Cuss a lot. Spent two days doing this . . . cussing all the while. Take a look at the yard. Realize you are not making even a tiny dent in the debris. Cuss a whole bunch.


Have a son who comes up work a workable solution. Go to several stores and try to buy a firepit (a summer goodie) on the 27th of December. Succeed in finding ones for nearly $200. Cuss some more. Admit defeat, then try one more store - what the heck, it's already getting dark. Find a cheap firepit, in a new box, at a very reasonable price. Take home, smiling all the way. Let son assemble while you prepare dinner. Invite a friendly firebug friend to join you (knowing you are both firebugs, too). Have dinner, and spend six hours burning storm debris, toasting marshmallows, and making s'mores!


Pictures . . . .






















We did have a bit of trouble lighting the thing - but about a quart of lamp oil seemed to do the trick when dry leaves were at a premium . . . we had a nice little blaze and managed to go through quite a bit of the pieces of wood!

UPDATE: Today the yard man came and started raking up leaves and carting off branches - otherwise known as "firepit fuel." There are HUGE piles all over the back yard, the gutters were cleaned for the first time in three years, and by tomorrow evening, everything will be carted away! Hurray! But the most amazing thing was that - even after over 14 hours - the firepit still had a big pile of burning embers!!!

What a Mess!!!

What a mess is right!

About 10:45 p.m. Thursday night, 30 Nov, I was sitting at my computer IM-ing with my niece and sis-in-law, when there was a horrible banging and I thought a plane had flown into my house. Power was still on, but by the time I got to the kitchen, there was a lovely blue glow outside, then total darkness. When I got up in the morning, I saw the power lines from the meter on my house had been ripped away, and the phone and cable lines had also been ripped. A tree in my neighbor's yard dropped probably about eight limbs, all of which were lying on the wires from both houses.

Managed to make it through two nights and a day here, running my gas fireplace (which puts out precious little heat) and the burners on my gas stove. But when the temp got down to below 55 inside, I decided it was time to head out. Stayed with my dad from Saturday through Thursday. Power was restored late afternoon on Wednesday, but by then the indoor temp was 45 and outside was in the single digits. UGH!

If it weren't for the suffering and inconvenience, it would have been beautiful. Everything looked like a diamond-encrusted fairyland outside. When the sunlight would hit these trees covered in ice, they just sparkled.

As you can see from one of the pictures, the poor birds at my dad's were starving! This cardinal loves to hang out at the feeder. Whenever any other birds would come along, he'd kind of take a step in their direction and they'd scatter! Was almost like the school bully watching him. But the real bully was the hawk. Almost daily he'd come swooping around the corner of the house and try to pick the birds off the ground under the feeders. Thankfully, I never witnessed a kill!

Am just so happy to be back home again. There are several weird things - like the condensation that collected here in my little home office - and dripped down the walls. Not sure how much food I lost from the freezers - probably some. Not like this summer when the temps were over 100 - this time we were able to put stuff in my garage then in my son's freezer. Hopefully most of it is salvageable.

Hope everybody else is managing to stay warm - or at least has a wonderful dad they can impose on!