I hate ice. There, I said it. After over half an inch of ice accumulated Saturday night, our power went out. It was out for about 13 hours before the hard-working folks at AmerenUE got service restored. Then it iced again Monday night. Our power was out again until about 7:30 Tuesday evening. In the spirit of Charles Ingalls, I kept the homefires burning while Ma kept food in our bellies and made fireplace coffee and hot chocolate. At one point I ventured out to collect more firewood only to be turned back when a massive tree limb fell onto my woodpile just in front of me. I may not have been killed, but I doubt I would be able to type this had I been hit.
The inch or so of ice on our driveway has made the tailgatin' truck indispensible. Especially when you consider that over a half-dozen trees are bent down to the ground along our driveway obstructing our path in and out of our homestead. I have been forced to drive in the neighbor's field just to get out. Since Bethany's van cannot be driven, I have been driving her to town where she has a company car parked overnight. And I used the truck to pull a van out of an icy patch on our gravel road the other night. The other driver is a furnace repairman who was very grateful and offered his services to us next time our furnace quits (which it has done twice before).
Things aren't all bad, though. I had to take Alex and Bethany to town today, so I got to work way too early- thus affording me this opportunity to do a little blogging before clocking in. While at the gas station in Ashland this morning I got to meet several AmerenUE linesmen. I thanked them for their hardwork and told them to tell their crews how grateful we were to have power again this morning. One guy took a particular liking to my truck and asked if he could have his picture taken by it. I said of course and then he whipped out his University of Illinois hat and posed for some photos that he planned on sending to his son- a Mizzou graduate.
The neatest thing about the Ice Storm of 2007 was taking advantage of the lack of technological distractions around the house. Our family played games by firelight, cozied up together in front of the fireplace, and read together. Per Brother Blake's suggestion, I actually pulled out Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House in the Big Woods" and read it to my family last night. I managed to get through the first couple of chapters before our lights came back on. You know what? I kept reading for a little while because I really enjoyed the peace and quiet and the simple pleasures of "pioneer living." A part of me was actually sad to see the lights come back on. But quickly I realized how lucky we all were to have power again and then I microwaved some vittles for us to eat.
After work today I get to cut down a few trees so that Bethany can get her van out tomorrow. Maybe I'll use an ax like Pa Ingalls... Nah. I'm pretty sure he'd use a chainsaw if he had one.
1 comment:
heh, we had a similar event the other night.
my daughter was sad to see the power come back on, after we had all gotten cozy and started playing games and what not...so I turned out the lights and we continued.
~Martin
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