I've Got the POWER!!!

       Yeaaaaaaaaah baaaaaaaaby!!

 

I got home from work today and as I pulled into my driveway I noticed the porch light on.  I cursed under my breath as I could see my house was still dark and I thought someone was playing a horrible trick on me with the generator we'd been using to keep the freezer going.  When I got out of the car and turned up my drive I could see someone had turned my living room light on.  Tears started to roll down my cheeks.  Power came back in the nick of time!   Five days of no power had taken it's toll and this morning when I got up to the sound of the alarm on cell phone I cried.  I was tired.  I was feeling isolated from the world.  I have said before I don't watch TV but not having the sound of it in the background or the ability to watch the news or my boys was weighing on me.  Hell I didn't even know they had an earth quake in Hawaii!!   Peeing by candlelight, making coffee in an old peculator and getting the coffee in the filter in the dark.  Boiling water before using it.  Throwing everything in my refrigerator out......  the list goes on.  The little things we take for granted were gone.

 

I did my entry Thursday night and actually thought the snow I showed in the picture was all we'd get.  About 10ish things changed dramatically.  You could barely see across the street.  The flakes were the size of quarters and they were coming down with such a fury.  Within the hour our lights started to flicker and before I knew it I lost my connection to the Internet.   I shut down and went off to bed, and at that point we still had power. 

 

Friday morning my sister woke me up to inform me we had no power.  I scrambled out of bed not realizing what was really happening.  I looked out the back window and completely missed the trees close by but rather admired the beauty of the thick wet snow stuck all over the trees way back.  It was then my sister said to look out front.  When I did I about fell over.  Trees down all over, the sky had the weirdest color I'd ever seen.  Almost looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off in the distance.  Across the street wires were hanging or were totally dislodged and were on the ground.  My neighbor was in his driveway shoveling and it was then I could tell how much snow had actually fallen.  It was to his knees! 

 

The temperature never really got to freezing, but a cold air mass had come down from Canada.  Oh, my Canuck friends!  LOL  As it passed over the warm water of Lake Erie the moisture turned to snow and it dumped on us.  The 22 inches of snow was not the problem at all.  We've gotten snow like that before.  It was the fact that it was so wet, it had stuck to the trees and all the leaves still in them.  The weight was more then the branches, limbs, and even some trees could bare and over they went.  By mid afternoon Friday the snow was melting at record pace, but there were 400,000 folks without power.  As the snow melted the flooding began because the pumps couldn't work to get the water out of basements.  Thank God I got no water, but so many did!! 

 

There were driving bans all over and by the time I was able to get out I was in awe, in shock.  Oh, shock and awe, what a familiar statement.  LOL Who'd have thought I'd ever use something 'he' did.  EEEEEEEEeek  Anyway, it did look like a war zone.  There was not a yard that was not effected.  Trees, limbs, branches over each front lawn I passed.  Wires still hanging in the streets, on lawns, over cars and houses.  My eyes filled with tears as I realized the landscape would never be the same.  Then tears came even more as I realized how lucky my family and I were.  We were safe. 

 

There have been some deaths.  Accidents because folks drove through intersections with the lights out.  Never taught to treat such as a four way stop I guess.  ::wiping tears::  A man had a tree limb fall on him as he tried to help an elderly neighbor.  Folks died from carbon monoxide poisoning because for some reason they had generators running in their homes instead of outside.  How could this happen?  Why?

 

I have a ton to tell and will, but this entry got pretty long pretty fast.  I've posted a few pictures to give you some idea, not my normal way so feel free to view enlarged to get the full view.  The snow has been gone since Saturday but the after effects were killer!!!  There are still about 200,000 folks without power and they are saying it could be Sunday before everyone is restored.  Five days and I consider myself lucky.  Thank you all for the good wishes I do appreciate it.  I do!!!  I do want to apologize but I had to turn off alerts.  I wasn't sure when I'd be back and Saturday when I logged in from my brothers I had almost 700 pieces of mail.  I never even made it through them so if you emailed and didn't get a response, or needed something please resend.  I deleted so much so not to have things bouncing all over and clogging everything up.  Again, I do apologize but think you all understand.  I am pretty much back to normal and looking forward to being back. 

Hugs

~d