Woman Down

We have enjoyed unseasonably warm temperatures in the last week, but the weather system that moved through yesterday brought things back to normal. Fortunately we dodged the bullet on an ice storm. Schools were closed today in anticipation of the ice we didn’t get.

REMEMBERING ICE STORMS OF THE PAST. All this talk about ice storms made the boys ask about how serious an ice storm can really be. They’ve never lived through a bad one. I’d rather have two feet of snow.

The most recent major ice storm we had here was in 1994. I was in Knoxville for that one and the temperature there didn’t drop as low as it did here so all I saw was a lot of rain. Vicki, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky since that was her first year to teach in Springfield. I had planned to come home that weekend but the weather prevented that. The power was out around here for several days. I remember calling Vicki one time and her telling me the only light she had left was a book light and that she was so cold her eyeballs hurt. When I finally got to come home I was astounded to see all the piles of tree limbs scattered around Aunt Mar’s yard and we have Mom on video recounting how she and Aunt Mar sat in a dark house the first night of the storm watching all the explosions as the ice weighed down and snapped the power lines or the overhanging tree limbs as well as shorting out transformers.

The ice storm that left a big impression on me happened back in 1974. As I recall it was shortly after the first of the year. We lost power for several days in this storm as well. (It seems like the power was off for at least a week but I hesitate to trust the forty year old memory of a then seven year old boy.) However long it was off I remember the only heat we had was from the gas logs in the den and a kerosene heater so Mom, Aunt Mar, and I all slept in the pull out couch. We warmed our food as best we could atop the kerosene heater. And someone came by with a generator connected to the PTO of their tractor and provided power for our freezer to keep the food from thawing out. One night all the neighbors came over to sled down our hill. This was great fun until an ice laden tree limb fell a few feet away from one of the sleds putting an end to the adventure.

However you look at it an ice storm has the ability to bring life to a halt in a way that the snows we get around here cannot match because snow has less of a potential to knock out the power. I remember it was a few years after that last storm that our electric cooperative went to work moving all their power lines to taller poles that are next to the roads.

ONE SICK VICKI. Whatever has been going around Vicki and I both got it this week, though she wins the contest for being the sickest. I have been dealing with a head cold since before Thanksgiving, but the bug really caught up with me by Monday making me leave work after lunch. I had rebounded by the next morning. By early Wednesday Vicki started experiencing aches, chills, etc. She got everything she could ready for Awana that night and has been on the couch practically the whole time since. I am glad to say she is on the mend, but it still may take a day or two yet before she begins to feel well.

RAISING MONEY FOR HAITI. Jenna is working hard to raise money to fund her own trip to Haiti. Last Saturday our church and Long Hollow Church sponsored a 5K run as a fund raiser. Jenna (and Vicki) got busy and made sausage and biscuits and hot chocolate to sell at a booth she had there. Jenna also sold chocolate covered pecans. She wound up raising over $400 for herself and has probably gone over the $500 by now. If she keeps that up she'll be able to pay her own way!

DRAWING ON THE WALL. For years East Robertson Elementary has held a monthly drawing for students who have had good behavior to paint one of the concrete blocks in the hall by the library. Each of our kids has gotten this honor and Nate has now painted a second block. This time he simply printed the text of Philippians 4:13—I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me—along with a cross, his name, and the date. His other brick drawn in 2010 features green aliens, flying saucers, and a race car with flames coming out the back.

Joe