A Walk Through the Ice

I guess it's a good thing, but the ice storm was a bit of a bust.  The possible half inch of ice ended up at probably a quarter inch or less.  There were no significant outages in the area or much tree damage at all.  It's a relief to not have to worry about the power or unsafe driving, but I was sort of looking forward to exploring the frozen landscape with the boys.  One of my most memorable childhood moments was an ice storm that hit Western New York back in 1991.  I was in 7th grade at the time, and I remember it pretty well.  I remember the power going out around midnight, and sitting on the toilet in the morning and hearing something that sounded like gunshots.  I found out a little while later when I got out to play in the icy wonderland that it was chunks of ice falling off the high power lines into the ice-covered snow below.  I almost saw a car get hammered by one of those, too!  I loved walking around and seeing everything encased in ice, from the sheet that was sliding down the stop sign (with "STOP" ghosted into it) to the fancy posts on the fence.  I slid down the snow drift next to the house a bunch of times before the ice finally gave way, and then I was checking out the side of the neighbor's house, which was completely encased.  Not more than a minute after I moved on to something else, I heard a cracking, and suddenly the entire ice cover on that side of the house sheeted off at once.  I don't know what happened, but it was pretty scary!  It was a lot of ice and it probably could have cut me up pretty good.  Everything else was magical, though.  Thankfully our power came back on midday, so I didn't have to spend an entire snow day without TV (or heat!).  Little did I know that Rochester got hit much worse, and people here had no power for weeks on end!

So, with this ice storm I was excited at the prospect.  Last night it sleeted pretty good for a while and then seemed to start to rain, but I was shocked to see almost no ice accumulation this morning.  You could tell there was a glaze, but not as much on the trees as expected.  I knew more freezing rain was supposed to be coming as the morning wore on, and between not knowing what the roads were like and not wanting the car to end up glazed over by the end of church, we just opted to stay home.  I listened to the sermon online, at least!  We had a lazy morning, and over that time a little more ice did build up on the trees.  After lunch I tried to convince the boys to come out and explore with me before the ice started to melt, but of course I had no takers.  So out I went!

Oh, but before I get to that, I wanted to share these pictures I took from my kitchen window the other day.  I saw a blue jay hanging out in our tree and ran to get my camera.  They're just so pretty!

Right after I snapped the second picture, he flew off to the neighbor's tree.  He quickly flew from there, too, and just as he did I spied this guy sitting in the same tree!

Okay, back to today.  First stop, the burning bush...

Definitely the opposite of burning today.

 Then the crunchy grass...

And the tree in the front yard.  Good thing I took the Easter eggs off it when the weather hit the 50s the other day!

I decided to take a little stroll.  There's a spot around the corner that I knew had some pretty crocuses popping up so I figured that might be a good spot.  The neighborhood looked cool with all of the icy trees.

The sound of the icy trees blowing in the wind sounded like rain, but it wasn't raining.  Thankfully the sidewalks were no more than a little slushy in spots and I didn't have to dodge falling ice at all.  It started falling a little once I came back, but I never got hit!  I got to the crocuses and it was sad to see them so frozen over.

On the way back, I couldn't help but take a shot of a maple down the street.

Even something as simple as a solar light gets interesting after some ice.

I wandered into the backyard, righted a garbage can, marveled at the slush-filled water table, and looked around the yard at the mess I need to clean up once the weather starts cooperating.  Probably the most fun thing I saw was this...

The ice fell off the wires attached to the house in a straight line!

I brought in a piece that broke off a tree to show the boys what they were missing, and it's now sitting in the freezer.  Maybe next time they'll listen?

The ice has pretty much melted now.  We're going through a couple days of hardcore rain now, and it looks like if we make it through this week, maybe next weekend will be halfway decent (but still not even average!), and maybe we'll even stick in the 50s for a bit.  It's seriously draining at this point and I'm about ready to add a couple more days a week of vitamin D!  Spring has to come eventually, right?