Breads and Milk

I'm going to have to take back what I said on my previous post about bringing on the storm. I'd like to send it back and send it back with all of the destruction it brought when it came to town. And to the little old lady at Wal-Mart warning me to get my "breads and milk" before this blew in, I apologize for laughing about you with the people I work with. You were right.

This wasn't the ice on the roads type storm that I was expecting. It was so much worse. The storm moved in on Monday evening with some light freezing rain. By 5AM on Tuesday, we were without power. Okay - this won't be so bad. The electric company said it would be back on by Wednesday - I could make it one day. It actually came back on just after lunch on Tuesday long enough to make some coffee (it was getting cold). However, after a loud, scary explosion somewhere on my mountain, the power was out again.

The storm grew uglier. Tuesday afternoon was spent huddled under a blanket on the couch listening to the constant sound of breaking tree branches. The loud pops were followed by the deafening crashes as huge branches and top halves of trees came falling to the earth, to my house, on top of my neighbor's houses, in my yard, and almost on my car (I was sneaky and moved my car before it was too late). For about 5 hours it was nonstop snapping and popping until it started to slow down. It was dark by this point, so I wasn't able to see the destruction until Wednesday morning.

We spent Tuesday night in a dark house, playing Trivial Pursuit, cooking soup (thankfully my house has a gas stove) and letting the temp get very close to freezing in our living room.

Wednesday morning was scary. The entire area looked as though a frozen tornado ripped through the area. There was no way we were getting the cars off of our street - thankfully we had a friend who parked his Jeep down the street and could get out. We drove around that day, taking pictures, enjoying the heater in the car, and eating in a heated fast food place.

Wednesday evening was like Tuesday - but much, much colder.

Here I find myself at Thursday. I'm at a place that is warm and has internet and tonight we're all staying at a friend's house who has power (warm beds are always a good thing). Who knows when my house will have power again - this weekend? Next week? Dunno.

Send me good thoughts - this is surreal, scary, sad, and oddly enough, beautiful. Nature can really do some amazing things - even if they aren't ideal.

Possible Closures Reported

It seems as though we have some doomsday type weather heading our way here in NW Arkansas (and part of Oklahoma and Missouri). 1-2" of ice, power outages, yadda yadda yadda. The clip above doesn't sound doomsdayish - but people have been out of their freakin' minds while shopping for supplies and the news hasn't exactly helped the situation at all.

Now, now, I know what you northerners are saying "anytime it just hints of cold weather, people down south do the freak out dance". Let me tell you, 1-2" of ice isn't the same as snow or cold weather. We're talking ice rink conditions out there people. I live in a very hilly place and the last thing I want to do is test the traction on my very old and slightly balding tires while heading west on North street (if you are from around here, then you know which street I'm referring to).

If the power does go out then I'll feel badly for those with electric stoves and no blankets - but I've got a gas stove, plenty of cans of soup, and blankets enough for the entire block.

Bring it on.