Ice World

We have had quite the onslaught of winter weather lately. Most of what we have been getting is in the form of snow, which can be plowed off the roads and will look beautiful and even provide entertainment. Last week Isaac was able to build one big snowman in the front yard and a giant snow head in the back. They're still out there. Only now, they're covered in a thick layer of ice. The winter storm which swept across the nation, coming up from Texas, caught us on its fringes, sending us wintry mix and ice instead of more snow.



 
The local school districts finally caught on and cancelled school for two days together, this being the second day. I caught on and cancelled Bible study and a lunch date with a friend yesterday, and unless we have a change of weather on the scale of the miraculous, today's lunch with another friend will also be cancelled. When my cell phone's morning alarm went off at 7 this morning the rest of the clocks in the house were blinking "12:34", indicating that the power had come back on only 34 minutes before. I wonder how long it had been off? In the silence of the morning I can hear, every now and then, tree branches breaking with a loud pop and crack, and then the shimmering and pounding fall to earth as they tumble through lower branches, the ice which caused the breakage falling away in a shower of glass.


 
Everything outside is coated in ice. The smaller trees, branches bereft of leaves for some months now, look like crystal sculptures. Larger trees, especially all of the various pine trees on our property, are bowed over towards the ground, wearing a heavily frozen mantle as they pay homage to the ice. Branches of all sizes litter the yard. The poor snowman in the front yard is covered in a layer of ice from his knit cap to his pathetic carrot, looking as if he needs some Theraflu. Sniff.


 
And the ice is still falling from the sky. Milo sits in the bay window, gazing out at the miserable, cold world, doubtless feeling grateful again that he lives inside a cozy, warm, and dry home. My sweet kitty used to live in the wild outdoors, all alone. He usually looks particularly content on days like today.


 
I must close, since we haven't cancelled school today.


 
*Note: This post was originally written on Wednesday, February 2^nd, but the ice storm had knocked out our internet, so it wasn't posted until Friday. Our power flickered on and off all day Wednesday, and on Thursday when we had some errands to run, we discovered that whole trees and huge branches had come down not only in our neighborhood, but all along Rt. 625, bringing down major portions of the lines that run there as well. We are so grateful to the guys who worked in the cold, along the busy, dangerous roads to restore our electricity and phone/internet lines.