Today we had the first ice storm of the season. Autumn had been unusually warm, and most of the trees still had leaves that had not fallen. That proved to be disasterous. The frozen wet leaves were more than some trees could handle, and we lost many more limbs than usual. One of our favorite trees down by the lake was severely damaged, and we listened with dread to debris hitting our roof.
School was called off at the firts hint of icy roads, of course. Initially, I was supposed to be at work by ten. Such is the price one pays for being a twelve month employee. That got changed to a complete day off, except for a meeting with architects that couldn’t be rescheduled.
We kept our power for quite awhile. Flashes on the horizon spoke of blowing transformers, and across the lake it was very dark. At 8:30 we lost our power, and could do nothing more than sit, read, and listen to more crashing limbs. From the sounds of it, we may be able to get our house reroofed via insurance.
The day was spent in the limbo of having no power. We couldn’t do anything that required close attention because we were constantly distracted by "ice bombs", as Laura called them. More and more crashes were heard, and occasionally the house would shake. I was afraid to look outside, but what I could see through the windows was disheartening. Limbs were down everywhere.
We had planned to have the Kaups over for pizza and ice cream to celebrate mine and Rebecca’s birthdays. Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen as planned. We found that Frodo’s Pizza still had power, and since it was close to the Kaups, it would serve as an alternative.
The trip to Cherrydale revealed even more damage. Trees were blocking lanes on major roads, and many lights were out. When we got to Frodo’s, it seemed that many had the same idea as we did. The line was out the door, and we were told that the wait for pizza would be about an hour. Oh well.
As we waited, I marveled at the young woman who seemed to managing the place. In all of the chaos, she kept a calm smile and demeanor. I was impressed. Between five adults and three kids we polished off bread sticks, two large pizzas, and a cookie pizza, washed down with sodas for the kids and two pitchers of beer for us.