Friday, February 22, 2008

Mother Nature's Wrath-- The Sequel

That's what today's newspaper called it. I call in a royal pain in the patoot.

Starting late Weds night and continuing all day yesterday we had another ice storm. This time I didn't lose power, although I was ready with flashlights and extra batteries and a supply of food and water.

Last night's dress rehearsal had already been cancelled, so I didn't have to go out at all Thursday. Early this morning I took some more pictures of the ice.

This is the Anderson Skating Rink, otherwise known as my back yard, about 6:30 this morning. The bamboo is bending, as it does so well.



Although the white stuff looks like snow, it's not. It's pure ice. I was guesstimating about 3/4 of an inch of it but I was underestimating.

Notice the heater cord coming from the bird bath. Yesterday I managed to get out and put fresh water in it and put out bird seed, corn, and a fresh seed cake in the holder that hangs from what looks like a four foot tall pole you can see on the left side. It's actually the trunk of a dogwood tree that died. When I had the tree cut down I had them leave the trunk that way. I nailed a board across the top and it makes a great feeding platform. There are some nails here and there to hold a seed basket and a seed cake holder. My birds love me.



This was taken right at the foot of my back steps. You can see Madison's water bowl just to the right, and you can barely see the door mat, which is brown plastic fiber, right in the lower middle of the picture. Shortly after taking the picture I scattered some salt in this area so I could walk to the right to get more bird seed. I managed to get to the seed, but just stood and threw it out into the yard. No way I was going to try to skate out to the feeder.




This is my little baby silver Prius, all covered with ice. Late this afternoon I finally got out and started getting the ice off. Thank heaven for the hybrid drive, so I could run the engine with the front and back deicers on without using any gasoline--car runs on the battery as long as it's standing still. Because the side windows are in shadow the ice doesn't show up on them, but take my word for it, it was there. On the front and back windshield, I measured an inch and a half of solid ice. (I did this by sticking a small pair of scissors straight down through the ice, marking with my finger where the scissors stopped and then measuring the distance from that point to the to the scissors' tip.) While the car was running, I scattered salt around on the driveway so I could walk all the way around the car when it was time to scrape. I also scattered a path down the left side of the driveway almost to the street, since one of the actors in the play is going to come get me for tonight's dress rehearsal. He has a 4 wheel drive truck. Thank goodness I won't have to try to negotiate the icy roads tonight.

Don't you have a garage, you might ask? Yes, I do. But there's no room in it for the car. It's attached to the house and is both heated and cooled, so I couldn't even pull the car part way in. The garage has the washer and dryer, five cat boxes, a table with cat food and water, and a variety of other miscellaneous objects, including trash cans, tools, ice salt, etc. There are shelves built in on the sides (put in before I bought the house) that reduce the space available. If I took everything else out, I might be able to get the car inside, but I'm not sure I could open the door!
This is my front yard and front patio. You can see some of the branches from last week's storm still piled in front. The rest are still in the back, since Jerry hasn't had time to load them up and get them to the dump.
When the power went off last week, the timer on the lights on my front path got messed up, so now they come on at dawn and go off at dusk. I see a few of them need new bulbs, but that will have to wait for the thaw.
The ice along the outer edge of the patio was very slick, but because I had scattered salt last week on the part behind that, it melted off and was just slushy. This afternoon I was able to push most of the ice off the patio with my snow shovel. Wish the car had been that easy to deal with. It took almost an hour to get all the ice off the front and back windshields and side windows. So now the car is clean and I can see, providing I can get out of the driveway. That remains to be seen tomorrow. So far, no more ice is forecast for the immediate future. Whew!











































4 comments:

hot tamale said...

Wrath or beauty? I guess is truly in the eye of the beholder. Being born and raised in California, snow and ice is something I've never had to deal with. Now earthquakes, drought,shortages of all kinds, yes. I know how much I dont like the cold so Vennie, you are a trooper in my book. Hard to think its colder where you live as to where you just came home from!! ;)
love you and dont fall
Becky

Laura said...

OMG Vennie!

And I was complaining about the rain that we're suffering with here. I officially withdraw my offer to come and visit you right now. Brrrrrrrrrr.....

On the garage, everyone knows that they are for pet care and hanging tomato plants upside down from the rafters. I have not forgotten that picture.

Shannon said...

I tell ya, I am ready for Summer.

Robert said...

The Confederacy does offer some advantages.