Ice, ice, baby!

Super Bowl Sunday was a bust as far as the football game itself.  The Bronco's never appeared to have arrived for the game.  We enjoyed our dinner before the game, good company during the game, and the half-time performance.  Our friends decided to make an early exit (outcome of the game was known after the first play) and we stepped outside to bid them goodbye.  

Although Mr P had surgery in mid-November and has been doing extremely well, he had a set back that night when they left which we are still dealing with.

Overnight, snow fell and fell.

A phone call around 5AM in the morning was the telephone notification system where I work informing me of a three hour delay.  At 9AM, as I was putting my coat on to leave for work, the call came that work was canceled for the day.  

Snow continued to fall for most of the day.

 When it stopped, the official number that fell where we live was 7.5 inches.  It was heavy, wet snow and the yardstick photo was taken before it stopped snowing.

 Mr P was unable to do any plowing to remove the snow on the driveway so I volunteered my expertise.  He was reluctant to let me touch his Case tractor but relented by telling me how to start the tractor.  After verbal instruction from him and an aside where he stated that "I don't think you will be able to start the tractor and will probably flood it", I went to the garage, followed his instructions and voila! - the tractor started.  

As I write this I'm nursing the tail end of a cold sore which I think was created by stress.  The stress being trying to actually clear the driveway using a hydrostatic tractor that I never drove before.  No brake, push forward on the lever to go forward, pull back to go in reverse and you stop when you are in the center (neutral).  I kept trying to push a non-existent brake pedal with my left foot.  Add to the mix another lever which controlled the up and down of the plow and you can see why I have a stress related cold sore.

 If I went up and down the driveway 50 times, that was few, and even though I cleared some of the roadway at the top of the driveway, I got it done.  Don't know how long it took but I was exhausted when I was finished.

Work was not delayed on Tuesday but an ice storm was forecast for Tuesday night into Wednesday and boy did we get a coating.
Another early morning call announcing a delay for work on Wednesday morning due to road conditions.   The call had just came through and a loud whomp was heard out on the deck in the back of the house. Not only did the metal and nylon covered gazebo come down, a huge white pine tree brought it down, crushed our grill, and smashed the railing taking out our heated birdbath.

One of the large evergreen trees along our driveway (you can see the line of them in the pictures above of the snow) was completely uprooted, fell and clipped off a large portion of a big maple tree in the front yard.

Another part of the big maple in the front year fell on the house in the front pulling down the telephone, electric and cable lines.  The puzzling part was that we still had power in the house but it went from bright light to very dim light and the microwave oven would start running as normal and immediately slow to almost nothing.

Another large tree was completely uprooted in the woods off in the woods outside the back of the house but fortunately fell into the woods.  No harm done.

Here are two pictures of the tree that fell onto the deck.  You can see just above the end of the eave on the house where the tree broke before tumbling down.  It was amazing to me how much pine pitch I could smell when I opened the door to take a look.

There was a trip to the doctor's to make sure Mr. P's issue was not serious (it's not).  He needs to rest and continue to not do things he shouldn't be doing. 
We've had men from the cable company, the electric company and the telephone company here making repairs each day.  The tree trimming company, Mountain Top Tree Service, workmen were here early on and removed the tree on the roof and a portion of the tree on the deck.  They will be back to finish cleaning up the downed trees and debris after the insurance adjustor has reviewed the situation.  He's expected tomorrow. 

An exceptionally busy and sometimes stressful week, but we are thankful that no one was hurt and only "things" were messed up and can be fixed.

It's snowing outside as I post this and the forecast is for 1-2 inches before it's over.  Things should be cleaned up for an uneventful trip in to work tomorrow.  Here's hoping you are having a  good weekend wherever you are.