BS: ICE - the winter kind

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: maeve
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 10:14 AM

We still have power for the moment. As Charlie said, the flickers warn of a local outage soon, but many in Maine as well as our coffee-deprived friends in NH will be without it for a few days at least. It's flickering a lot here, and we expect to wave goodbye to the electricity soon. I know Brunswick and Portland are among the many cities and towns that have been severely impacted.

We are grateful for wood, coal, and propane heat, grateful to have oil lamps and candles and battery-powered flashlights and radios. We can cook on the propane kitchen stoves, as well as the heat stoves. We have filled buckets and milk jugs with pure sweet well water, and every kettle and soup pot is full of water too. All the laundry is hung to dry, all the kitchen dishes have been washed except what I'm mixing goodies in.

Bread is rising, cornbread and biscuits and apple pie will go into the oven soon, and we have soups, meats, and veggies packed into the freezer and fridge. Jeri- I wish I could get some of this good coffee to you!

Last time we had a serious ice storm in Maine, this area was without power for a couple of weeks, but neighbors looked after one another. We'll do the same this time.

Keep safe and warm, friends.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Jeri
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 10:00 AM

You start to realize how serious this is when it's NH and winter, 230,000 are without power and you're sitting in a cooling off house without enough gas to get to a gas station that has power, or to a hotel where they have heat and it's going to be an estimated 3-4 days at the SOONEST before you have power.

And there's no coffee.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 08:54 AM

It was a bit frosty this morning in London... I managed a little slip'n'slide of my own going up the steep bit of the pavement to the station.. but it's slippery enough in the dry! Kept my balance and my dignity though... can't be sliding on my ass in front of all those Polish builders, who all stink of Vodka at 5.50am in the morning....

Take care, keep warm all and don't let the cats get used to soup. Soon they'll be wanting croutons and serviettes as well.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Amos
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 08:16 AM

Yeah, Terry, rejoice while you still have that Gulf Streampuppy. I inderstand it is about to go bankrupt, or succumb to bird flu, or something.



A

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Leadfingers
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 08:07 AM

All Sympathy from Temperate England ! Thank ALL the Gods for The Gulf Stream ! Worst I have had so far is having to WIPE the frost off the car !!

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Jeri
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 08:04 AM

My power went out at midnight and is still out. I kept waking up when a trees broke and fell. There's the main trunk of a maple on my shed and branches all over. The small birches are all bowed over.

I don't know when they might get the power on. The road looks passable (if I can chisel my car out) and there's no coffee here.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Charley Noble
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 07:39 AM

Miracles of miracles! We still have electricity this morning. And I have a coon cat lap-warmer as well! It looks pretty awful out the window and most of the schools and government offices are shut down. I suppose I should go out and salt the steps and walks but there really isn't a whole lot I can do with half an inch of ice everywhere, and more sleet coming down. We're supposed to have four more hours and then the temperature will drop and freeze everything harder.

We have been getting flickering of lights so I'm gonna post this while I can.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: gnu
Date: 12 Dec 08 - 05:20 AM

In Moncton, New Brunswick, we are glazed over as well, on top of 5cm of snow and ice pellets, but the temperature is now 0C (6:15AM) and expected to get up to 15C today... with heavy rain, 90kph wind and thunderstorms. I hope I don't find any more shingle tabs in my yard.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 11:56 PM

and no heat other than what can be provided by two cats and the hotplate.

Charley, how do your cook your cats?

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 11:36 PM

Yuck! Snow I don't mind, but you can keep your fecking ice! I remember my whole car being encased in a huge ice cube our first October in Western Mass AND, when we lived in CT, whole sheets of ice fell off of the skyscapers in downtown Bridgeport causing a shutdown of the whole district. It was an awesome and scary sight and I do not miss it.

Amos, up here in the high altitude, that light does get hazardous; it's so bright people are blinded by the light.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 09:41 PM

Amos-

I feel a tremendous urge to help you really feel our pain. That thought is very wrong, I know, but it helps me cope with the treacherous weather that we're experiencing, and will be experiencing for the next 24 hours. We didn't get more than a dusting of snow in this part of Maine so far but the rain is freezing to everything and by morning the tree branches will be coming down, and the trees, and the electrical and phone lines within reach of same. We'll be cut off from the world (not really a bad thing), all on our own with our candles, battery powered LCD lamps, and propane powered hotplates for an undetermined time. Because we're in town we'll still have running water but no electricity, and no heat other than what can be provided by two cats and the hotplate.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 09:34 PM

Yeah, Amos -- and I just got a letter from my cousin in Yuma, Arizona. It was wrapped in a Christmas card of a snowy cathedral landscape. What's with that?!?

Santa Anas can drive you mad, just like the Mistral. It can also add nastyness to any fires that get started.

Amos, you can keep the Santa Anas! Ice I'm not crazy about. A little bit of snow is nice -- especially if it goes away before it turns black from car exhaust and general pollution.

I like the change of seasons, but I'm glad I have an all wheel drive car and good tires!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Amos
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 09:29 PM

Well, we have our own woes. We've been having this lovely warm wind thing called a Santa Ana for the last few days and it is supposed to end. There will be water, instead of light, falling all around from the sky. (Hopefully, at least, no more jet fighters). But we will buckle down and grit our teeth and bear the sufferings of hard winter. It will only last a few days and then the sunlight will start falling. You've never seen winter until you've been through a San Diego December sunlight storm. It covers the trees, the roads get bright and shiny, the roofs and porches are just covered with this bouncing radiance. Gruesome. And you have to mow the lawn and trim the flowers because of it too. It drives people--especially the shapely young ones--into all kinds of odd behaviors, including dancing on wave-tops and running around town with their cleavages exposed. You should hear the old folks complain!!! Sigh. The gutters get choked up with sunlight, and the streets get clotted up with these half-naked lithe college students.

So I guess I feel your pain.



A

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 09:06 PM

I left work (Fox Run Mall in Portsmouth, NH) at 8:00 PM (have I mentioned that retail sucks?) and spent a number of minutes in the parking lot de-icing my windshield, rear windshield, windshield wipers, etcet etcet. The car was encased in clear ice.

Driving, while not particularly great, wasn't as bad as I expected. It was raining. The trees, I think, were covered in ice and sort of looked white. They were probably very beautiful, but I couldn't take my eyes off the road.

Never went faster than 45 -- expected it to get slippery once I got west of Rte. 125. (125 is a weather line.) Didn't have any trouble making the turn on to Freeman Hall Road or going down the hill or turning onto Priest Road -- and I didn't continue down the hill when I asked the car to turn into the driveway. The car turned rather docilely.

Breathed a sigh of relief, though, at being home. Wipers had just started to ice up. Tom came out on the deck and spread ashes so I could walk up the stairs (the handrail was shiny ice -- as was every other surface), across the deck and get safely into the house.

I'm leaving the computer right now for a well deserved piece of Tom's pecan pie and a snifter of rum.

The weather tomorrow is supposedly going to be sucky -- and I have to open. (Have I mentioned retail sucks?)

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Alice
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 08:49 PM

Storm coming this way on Saturday night will bring below zero temps.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 08:15 PM

It crossed my mind Amos as I slid across the street in Portland that it would be ironic if I finally got rid of this monstous bug only to fall on my ass and break my hip.

My front and back porches are glazed with ice but Freddie insisted on going out. He flew out when I opened the door, slid across the porch, caught his footing only to slide off the top step to an unceremonious landing on the ground. Once i was sure he wasn't hurt, I laughed. He came back in the front door - slightly less treacherous.

I hope Seamus will be OK. I have lots of salt here and soup. But I hate it when there is no hot water. Wew'll see.

All the trees and wires are glazed. If it is anything like this in the morning. I will stay home tomorrow. I would imagine there will be late openings. The salt trucks are out already and this is suppose to last all night.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Sorcha
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 08:02 PM

Hell, just feed the cats tinned soup. They'll love it. Wyoming is still quite nice.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: ranger1
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 07:52 PM

Sigh. I almost killed myself trying to get the dogs in. Now I have to leave the neighbor's comfy house to trek back across the street to our little hole in the wall. Wish me luck climbing the outside stairs. At least I have permission from the boss to be as late as I need to be to get to work safely. Including not coming in at all, if the roads are too dangerous.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Jeri
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 07:30 PM

Amos, FEH! Ice in single malt!!??...! Were you raised by wolves? Next thing you know, you'll be pouring it into your coffee. FEH!

I went outside to get the mail and de-iced my porch. I noticed the glazing on my car, but I came back inside and haven't been back out since. The high temp on Saturday is supposed to be 17°F. (Might have changed, but it's still gonna be cold.) I have coffee and food, and I'm good for a while unless the power goes out.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: ranger1
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 07:18 PM

Mary, the cats are going to mutiny! Sleep with one eye open!

I left work two hours early, the interstate was posted down to 45 mph and was amazed at the number of idiots speeding past me. No problems getting home, until I went to turn into the parking lot of our building and slid sideways into my parking space. Landlord's son came out, headed off to a job and almost landed on his butt. Has the landlord done anything about our ice-glazed front steps? Why no, he hasn't. As usual.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Amos
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 07:17 PM

Sins:

I am shocked. Shocked!! Here you are fresh out of a sickbed.

1. You have no business being up.
2. You have no business going outside.
3. I get the impression you are doing some sort of slip-slidey thing, which is proabbly unwise in your enfeebled condition.
4. The implication in your post that you are also getting cold worries me.
5. What is this "ice" of which you speak? We have a thing called by that name here in San Diego, but we use it to cool our single malt with, and it presents no risk to the health.


A

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 06:53 PM

You are welcome here. Be very careful. Walking is treacherous.

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Becca72
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 06:50 PM

Leaving work now and thinking of calling my sister to stay at her house..she's about 4 miles from work whereas my own place is about 17 miles...

Subject: RE: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 06:50 PM

I started hunkering about the end of September....

Subject: BS: ICE - the winter kind
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Dec 08 - 06:47 PM

I left work a few minutes early because they were talking about icy roads. SHEESH! I nearly broke my neck walking half a block to the parking garage. The sidewalks are sheets of ice about 1/4" thick and clear. Home now after a graceful slip and slide across my driveway and a thoroughly embarrassing crawl up the front steps - even the railing is coated with thick clear ice. The weather reports are really bad - ice, sleet, rain, and more ice.
Power outages expected. I have flashlights and batteries and lots of canned soup, but horror of horrors I am out of cat treats. Anybody else hunkering down?