The house was still lighted and toasty when I left for work this morning. But I barely had time to put my things down at my desk when my cell phone rang.
It was Bud. Our luck had run out. Or so we thought.
Turns out the electric company shut us down while they repaired a line going into a neighbor's house across the street. All was well within an hour. Whew!
The photo is from Tuesday night, when our deck became known as the ice rink attached to the back of our house. The steps were humps of iced-over snow -- climbing or standing not recommended (and nearly impossible anyway).
Friday, January 30, 2009
Clean-up begins
Luckily, we still haven't lost power -- unlike more than 600,000 other electrical customers across the state.
So, rather than worrying about how to survive, I went back to work and Bud started getting rid of our downed trees. We loaned our portable generator (purchased during our ice-storm power outage in 2003) to my boss, who hasn't had electricity since about 7 a.m. Wednesday.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't get any strong winds to further burden our ice-laden trees -- because we're really enjoying our electricity and the lack of holes in our roof.
So, rather than worrying about how to survive, I went back to work and Bud started getting rid of our downed trees. We loaned our portable generator (purchased during our ice-storm power outage in 2003) to my boss, who hasn't had electricity since about 7 a.m. Wednesday.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we won't get any strong winds to further burden our ice-laden trees -- because we're really enjoying our electricity and the lack of holes in our roof.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Battling Mother Nature
As our friend Joe drove home from work yesterday, he snapped a shot of Bud clearing our driveway.
Clearing this mess wasn't as easy as the first time he got to use the snowblade. Under the snow was a solid sheet of ice, and getting below the ice to break it up proved difficult.
Not one to give up, though, Bud persevered. The lawn tractor couldn't climb the hill, so he tied it to the truck's hitch, and I pulled him up. When he got stuck in snow and ice, he rocked himself free and sometimes I helped by pushing. Now we have a clear driveway to show for his efforts.
At least there were no trees blocking his progress. Let's hope it stays that way.
Clearing this mess wasn't as easy as the first time he got to use the snowblade. Under the snow was a solid sheet of ice, and getting below the ice to break it up proved difficult.
Not one to give up, though, Bud persevered. The lawn tractor couldn't climb the hill, so he tied it to the truck's hitch, and I pulled him up. When he got stuck in snow and ice, he rocked himself free and sometimes I helped by pushing. Now we have a clear driveway to show for his efforts.
At least there were no trees blocking his progress. Let's hope it stays that way.
Dodging a wooden bullet
Our garage (and our neighbors') are still standing by luck today.
As ice piled up all around us Tuesday night, the big maple that stood between us and our neighbors decided it couldn't stand any longer.
And so one trunk fell just behind the retaining wall for our driveway, also missing the back of the garage. The other fell between the hedge and the neighbors' garage.
(I'm still searching the archives for a 'before' photo. You know there's got to be one around here somewhere!)
The tree used to have three trunks, but we lost one in a windstorm this past spring. Bud talked with the neighbor then about taking the whole thing down, but the neighbor wasn't interested.
We knew at least one remaining side of tree was partially hollow because it was home to our neighborhood bees. Guess which side we got! Bud will do his best bear impersonation soon, prowling the trunk for honey as he saws the tree to manageable pieces.
Anyway, back to the storm. We are fortunate not to have lost power so far. In 2003, during a much worse storm in Central Kentucky (although not as far-reaching as this one), we were without electricity for four days. It was less than fun, even with the fireplace's feeble attempt to keep us warm.
This time, our misery has been a day without Internet access, cable and phone -- all of which returned yesterday evening. Here's hoping that's all we have to report.
At our old house, things seemed in working order yesterday afternoon. At Bud's mom's, we also lost another tree, which narrowly missed her garage. So we're thankful for that too.
As ice piled up all around us Tuesday night, the big maple that stood between us and our neighbors decided it couldn't stand any longer.
And so one trunk fell just behind the retaining wall for our driveway, also missing the back of the garage. The other fell between the hedge and the neighbors' garage.
(I'm still searching the archives for a 'before' photo. You know there's got to be one around here somewhere!)
The tree used to have three trunks, but we lost one in a windstorm this past spring. Bud talked with the neighbor then about taking the whole thing down, but the neighbor wasn't interested.
We knew at least one remaining side of tree was partially hollow because it was home to our neighborhood bees. Guess which side we got! Bud will do his best bear impersonation soon, prowling the trunk for honey as he saws the tree to manageable pieces.
Anyway, back to the storm. We are fortunate not to have lost power so far. In 2003, during a much worse storm in Central Kentucky (although not as far-reaching as this one), we were without electricity for four days. It was less than fun, even with the fireplace's feeble attempt to keep us warm.
This time, our misery has been a day without Internet access, cable and phone -- all of which returned yesterday evening. Here's hoping that's all we have to report.
At our old house, things seemed in working order yesterday afternoon. At Bud's mom's, we also lost another tree, which narrowly missed her garage. So we're thankful for that too.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Half-wrong
Well, I only got it half-right when I predicted two Kentucky losses this weekend. Obviously, I have completely lost faith in the Cats. Who would have ever thought we could pull out a third-straight football bowl win, but not defeat Louisville in basketball?
On the moving scene, we didn't manage much. Bud gave his pool table to an neighbor from the old house, so we went by there Saturday to deliver the goods. That's one piece of furniture down, lots more to go.
Luckily, I've planned a vacation later this month for exactly that purpose. I hope we can get the majority of it done in just a week. Then it'll be up to Kathy, who cleans our houses. After that we'll decide what cosmetic projects we want to tackle before we put in on the market.
It all sounds so easy.
On the moving scene, we didn't manage much. Bud gave his pool table to an neighbor from the old house, so we went by there Saturday to deliver the goods. That's one piece of furniture down, lots more to go.
Luckily, I've planned a vacation later this month for exactly that purpose. I hope we can get the majority of it done in just a week. Then it'll be up to Kathy, who cleans our houses. After that we'll decide what cosmetic projects we want to tackle before we put in on the market.
It all sounds so easy.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year!
Our annual New Year's Eve casino visit was somewhat profitable for Bud, who left the boat a few bucks up. I wasn't quite so lucky, bringing home about half of what I took.
We've been hitting the slots for six or eight years now on New Year's Eve, and this was a noticeably smaller crowd than usual. I can only guess the economy is to blame -- because the weather and roads were fine.
This morning, we headed to a huge auction that included lots of antiques similar to some of ours. Eavesdropping in the women's restroom, I found out it's an annual consignment event -- which makes more sense than what we thought, that it was the estate of some people who really liked antiques.
Our plan was to research the market for some of our pieces, so that we'll know to expect when we finally decide which ones just won't fit in the house. But we almost came home with a couple of new desks.
Bud had his eye on a gorgeous rolltop. We'd never seen anything like it (even though we have a rolltop or three among our collection). I coveted a two-drawer Stickley that needed some finish work. But since we couldn't figure out where we would put either, and since we're still not even sure of everything we have already, we restrained ourselves. That restraint may turn to non-buyer's remorse, but I hope not.
We've been hitting the slots for six or eight years now on New Year's Eve, and this was a noticeably smaller crowd than usual. I can only guess the economy is to blame -- because the weather and roads were fine.
This morning, we headed to a huge auction that included lots of antiques similar to some of ours. Eavesdropping in the women's restroom, I found out it's an annual consignment event -- which makes more sense than what we thought, that it was the estate of some people who really liked antiques.
Our plan was to research the market for some of our pieces, so that we'll know to expect when we finally decide which ones just won't fit in the house. But we almost came home with a couple of new desks.
Bud had his eye on a gorgeous rolltop. We'd never seen anything like it (even though we have a rolltop or three among our collection). I coveted a two-drawer Stickley that needed some finish work. But since we couldn't figure out where we would put either, and since we're still not even sure of everything we have already, we restrained ourselves. That restraint may turn to non-buyer's remorse, but I hope not.
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