the other end of the witch AGAIN

The last weather report (see the other end of the witch) was about the ice storm that hit last weekend. So on Thursday school got cancelled and the weather arrived. It came in some sort of rain first, then sleet, then snow, snow, snow. Holy shit. But all was just ducky until the electricity went out at noon and stayed that way.

I went into pioneer mode and Mr. Man went to bed. He couldn't sleep the whole time the electricity was out, but I know he wanted to. I kept the house from freezing by boiling big kettles of water. I gathered snow to keep the pots full and for extra water for flushing the toilet.*

Between storms (see Incredible Mind Suck) I had gotten batteries at WalMart (WalMart sucks!) for my tiny black and white t.v. so we could watch the constant storm coverage. Light was provided by the antique kerosene lamp and candles from my car winter emergency kit. The candles from the kit proved to be much better at providing light the hundred scented soy candles I have. (When I discovered the "joy of soy" I threw out ALL of my old candles, which in retrospect, was stupid.)

We survived the night and woke up in a 57 degree house. I made cowboy coffee and washed dishes in hot snow water. We played cribbage. It wasn't too bad.

At noon I bundled up and waded through the drifts to the truck to charge my cell phone. Mr. Man went back to bed. I gathered more snow and set it on the porch. I had just gotten peeled out of my blizzard gear when the lights came back on.

Some of my neighbors weren't so lucky. They didn't get their electricity back until Saturday afternoon. And there were people in the state who still were without power from the storm the weekend before. So all in all, we were lucky.

On Saturday a neighbor came with his tractor and pushed/blew snow. Mr. Man took my car "for a little drive" and went straight to a bar. Then another bar.

I didn't venture out until yesterday. I went to town M for a few groceries then went to town B -- straight to a bar. Dammit, I deserved it. Felt like crap this morning though.

The roads are still crappy in a lot of places. And the parking lot at school is a damn joke. There were tons of empty parking spots this morning but very few that didn't have 3 feet of snow in them.

Short version: Another shitty storm, lights went out, we lived.

*For city folk -- Out here where people draw their water from wells, the water does not come out of the tap without electricity firing the pump which means no toilet flushing. But you can pour water in a toilet and it flushes like magic!

the other end of the witch

(Thursday March 1 -- how do you change dates when you edit posts????)
A couple of weeks ago it was colder than a witch's tit. The high temps were in the negative range for a week. C-O-L-D.

Then it warmed up for a few days and the snow started to melt. We got cocky and started sporting lighter jackets. We thought the ground hog had it all wrong. Winter was over!

Silly us.

Forecasts are frequently wrong around here. Terrible storms are often predicted that never come to pass. Not so last weekend. We were warned. The storm came and it brought ice and then blowing snow, never a good combination.

So this is the other end of the witch. Not her tit, but maybe the crack of her ass. When the world goes dark and the roads are closed. I was lucky. The power was out for about 8 hours. As of this morning, some 80,000 households in the state are still without power from last weekend's ice/snow storm.

I didn't venture away from the farmstead until Tuesday. So I had two days in the world and now here it comes again. Ice, rain, snow, wind. The good news is that school was cancelled and I'm missing a test I am ill prepared for.

And if the power goes out I'll give crayons to the hubby so he can color his monitor. He doesn't know what to do with himself when he's not on the computer.