ice ice very nice

I’m not sure which Kurt Vonnegut book that’s from, but I have the clearest memory of sitting on the schoolbus, on my way to hell high school, reading that line. We were turning onto River Road from US 70. The book had a blue cover. Funny how something so insignificant can be so vivid 30ish years later.

Ice is what we had today. Lots and lots of ice. We stayed home from work, although we really could have made it in after 12 or so, when it got a teeny bit warmer and melted a little. It never did get all that warm, though, and when I went outside and took 384,912 pictures of ice the road was still slippery, so I didn’t feel too bad. They canceled all classes today, which used to be unheard of but is getting a lot more common. I’m not sure if it’s overprotective parents who scream lawsuit if their babies are in any danger of taking a tumble or if it’s because so many people are commuters. Probably a combination.

It was good to stay home. I didn’t get nearly enough sleep – Baker B’s new employee called him at 10:30 last night to say he didn’t think he could make it in, since his driveway was already iced over and he lives way up on a hill. So I stayed up till 1, figuring we’d at least be going in late. Then at 5 in the morning the power went out. We always know when the power goes out because the white noise – aka Mr. Static – goes off. And…it’s SILENT. Silent is scary!!! So is having the power go out when you are irresponsible idiots and have no backup source of heat. We’ve lived here nearly 10 years and the power has never stayed off longer than a few hours (until fairly recently, when it was off a whole day, but it wasn’t cold so we didn’t freeze) so although we keep saying we really really REALLY need a secondary heat source – like our fireplace insert which we’ve never used because it’s not sealed up and the trees over the chimney need to be cut back so we don’t set the neighborhood on fire – we still don’t do anything about it.

So I laid awake and worried about freezing and the power never coming back on and having to go to work without a shower since we’re on a well and when the power goes out the water does too. And thinking about how of course I had to go to the bathroom and wondering if I could at least hold out till daylight so I wouldn’t have to go down to the terrifying basement for backup flushing water in the pitch dark. All that wasn’t conducive to just going back to sleep.

Of course as is often the case with idiots, we are looked after, and the electricity came back on about 9. It didn’t  even got all that cold – it was never much below freezing outside, despite the ice, and inside it only got down to 63. Which, believe me, I consider quite frosty, but even I admit it could have been WAY worse. I do realize lots of people set their thermostat at 63 in the winter. People that aren’t as cold natured as us, obviously. We have a very very very good electric company, though. K, my old workmate, is married to an employee of our electric company and they are obsessive about keeping the trees trimmed around the lines. It pays off. Still, I think we need to at least get a little kerosene heater for emergencies. Or – perish the thought – fix the insert and burn some wood.

So it was an earlyweekend for us, and here it is Friday night and feels like it ought to be Saturday. I felt a little bad about not going in – everyone else made it eventually – but we’re not overwhelmingly busy right now, and I have MONTHS of vacation days that I haven’t been able to use. So, why risk it? Aggravation Receptionist and L both have no vacation or sick days, and D is just a workaholic (and lives with her crazy mother so she hates staying home) and even D was several hours late. So, I’ve tried to just enjoy a surprise day off and not feel guilty. Better yet, it’s supposed to be in the 50s this weekend. Usually that’s when we get the nasty weather.

And now we’re going to re-watch last night’s Lost – which, duuuuuuudes, is TOTALLY the Best.Series.EVER. I was kind of worried it would go downhill, and didn’t know how it could possibly live up to the amazing cliffhanger from last season – but it did. My only regret is that there will only be 8 episodes, thanks to the writer’s strike. I will say no more so as not to give anything away.

Before that, some ice pictures! OH, and I once said I was going to post my Twelve in 12 book reviews here, then started posting them directly into that diary after I got the hang of just posting to it directly. I’ve done two more – On Agate Hill for December, and The Bean Trees for January. Barely.

So, here’s what I woke up to this morning:

Yes, I DO have all my summer plant remains and my hummingbird feeder still out on the deck. What a shock, I know.