Day 3 - 29 -- Weathering the Storm

Friday was to be a stormy day, so I stayed home to work on a number of tasks from there. The snow seemed to begin by 1 pm -- just light fluffy flakes. By supper there was about 5-10 cm down and then it got really crazy into the early evening. The snow turned to those fine small flakes and they covered everything. There was a bit of melted precipitation mixing throughout, which created the consistency that just stuck to wherever it fell or was blown. Tree branches were all weighted down as were power, phone and cable lines. Seeing beyond a few feet outside of the window was impossible most of the evening. Just before 7, as I was finishing supper, the power went out, hence this message being a day late. First I packed a go bag and brought boots and coat into the bedroom with me. I found the comforter from the guest bed, doubled it and put it onto my bed. With a sweatshirt and sweat pants and 2 pairs of socks, I headed to bed about 9:30 pm. Electricity came on about 10:30 pm or later. By midnight when I got up for a hot beverage, there was about 15 cm more than there had been earlier. Two major branches were down -- one large one off the maple in the front fell and managed to miss the wires even though it lay under them. The other was the top 6-8 feet from the huge white pine in the back. That had come down before I headed to bed and by midnight was buried under much frozen white stuff. I believe we heard that one hit the roof and skate across with one huge gust of wind. Looking out the windows showed something like a scene from some apocalyptic weather movie. Even the light eerily shone though the source of the light was a mystery given the power outage and thick cloud and snow.

Once the heat was back on, I got to sleep again despite the anxiety about trees falling on the house or across the wires. The winds died down after midnight but the snow continued -- not as thick as earlier, but it was still falling. I will admit that only one line ran through my mind from a song my Dad played often. The song lyrics go beyond just the first line, particularly when I thought about the clean up that would be required over the coming days. The singer has a wonderful voice and sang many standards from the early '40s. Enjoy!

When the lights go on again -- Vera Lynn