We had a second snowfall, this week! It didn't last long and it promptly melted, but as you can see from the photo above (taken with my handy, dandy new point-and-shoot), the separate snowflakes were beautifully formed. I took photos of snowflakes on my fleece shirt, in my son's hair, on the car, in the leaves. Lovely, lovely.
At this moment, we're bracing for the winter storm that most of the country is expecting but we're not supposed to get snow. This time around, it's too warm and we're right on the borderline between the expected snow area and rain, which means . . . ice storm. I hate ice storms. We don't own a generator, in spite of the fact that I've been lobbying to get one for about 15 years, and now our fireplace is cracked so we can't use it. We always, always lose power in an ice storm and once we hit the level of ice that breaks tree limbs, it becomes really noisy and frightening as limbs and trees crash down around us.I've spent the day washing laundry and cleaning dishes to avoid having to worry about smelly piles of things that can't be washed and the husband has been cooking a few things that can be nibbled without the necessity to heat or cool them. We have at least three working flashlights and plenty of candles all ready. I'm hoping all this preparation will scare the ice away.
If the power goes out, I plan to huddle with the cat and read like crazy by flashlight. I'm currently reading three books:
The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
Mr. Darcy's Great Escape by Marsha Altman
The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories by Roald Dahl
I was enjoying all of them till I had to take today off to actually do some housework. The cat, fortunately, had an alternative lap (the kiddo's) so she's been happy in spite of my activity level. Tonight, Kiddo said he'd had enough of lying about with a cat on his lap and now the husband has her. We're nothing if not a family that coddles its feline.
I'm hoping to participate in the Bloggiesta hosted by MawBooks in order to do a little catch-up, this weekend, power permitting. Since we're expecting the ice to show up in the middle of the night, I think I'll just go ahead and shut down till after the storm that I hope won't materialize. Wishes for warmth and safety to all during the winter storm!
Bookfool, off to clean myself since the house is pretty much done
I want snow!!!!!! We still haven't had any this year despite the hope of having it twice :( I thought we may have it tomorrow, but like you said, looks like just rain. I'm reading FOUR books right now!!! I really need to learn to just stick to one. I never finish any of them when I read 4. I'm reading a graphic novel version of Darwin's On the Origin of Species that is GORGEOUS, Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan which is incredible, The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox and a book about childhood sexual abuse which is actually really good despite being an incredibly hard read at times :(
ReplyDeleteBoogiety-Boo!
ReplyDeleteThere! I scared it away for you!
I hope.
cjh
I love how you can see the formation of the snowflake on your sleeve. If you look really close, snow can be beautiful! Even if we have too much here (I'm in MN).
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, ice storms are scary! They are way worse than snow.
It is a crazy, cold winter! We're north of you and there's some ice on the ponds in the neighborhood, but we've yet to see snow. Stay warm!
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteLast year's snow is supposed to hold your for at least 4 years. ;)
All of those books sound so good, with the exception of the book on sexual abuse. Books on coping after sexual abuse were one of our fastest sellers at the outlet store, which is such a sad, sad statement. You might be interested in the author's revelation about how she discovered she'd been sexually abused in First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria.
We just got rain! Wahoo! Except, the temperatures are supposed to drop throughout the day and now Eric of WLBT says the big threat will be black ice on Friday morning. Yeeks. Kiddo's school wasn't closed, but they're closing early since it's supposed to get colder and turn icy. He was not amused having to get up early after being told, "School will probably close". LOL
CJ,
It worked! For now, anyway. Ice is supposedly on its way, this afternoon, but at this point it's just boring old rain. We're perfectly happy with boring old rain if the alternative is an ice storm!!
Tracie,
Isn't that beautiful? You can't always see the individual flakes so well; sometimes they come down in clumps. Well, you would know that, being in Minnesota, wouldn't you?
Snow is so rare in Mississippi that it just thrilled our socks off. My son was asleep when it started snowing, but he popped right out of bed, threw on his clothes and a coat and went outside to enjoy it. :)
Ice storms are a horror. We had a bad one two days before Christmas, one year. The sound of limbs falling and trees crashing is like nothing else I've ever heard. And, sadly, a neighborhood dog was left out in the storm all night. I think his owners should have been arrested for cruelty.
Kathy,
Really? You haven't had any snow at all? I'm stunned. I thought just about everyone but Chris had gotten a taste of snow (and, of course, being in New Orleans he has good reason not to see it often). We've lucked out, so far. No ice, just rain. The temps are already dropping a little, though -- down from 40's to 39, at this moment.
I really liked The Swan Thieves - I'll be curious to hear what you think.
ReplyDeleteBridget,
ReplyDeleteDon't hold your breath. I'm only at about page 230, right now. Getting there, but slowly. So far, I love it. I like the characterization and detail.
You'll have to let me know whether Mr. Darcy's Great Escape can be read without reading the previous two. I have a copy, but I want to know whether I should get my hands on the others first!
ReplyDeleteFYI; For all 2009 WWII Reading Participants, the giveaways are up and ready for entrants.
go here: http://warthroughthegenerations.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/international-2009-wwii-reading-challenge-giveaways-revealed/
--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
Wow, love the snowflake on the collar--great pic! I'll be crossing my fingers that you don't get an ice storm!
ReplyDeleteAnna,
ReplyDeleteI think it would be really hard to follow what's going on in Mr. Darcy's Great Escape if you haven't read The Darcys and the Bingleys and . . . um, the one with the brothers. Can't remember the name of the second title. Because she takes the characters off in her own direction and builds on previous books, I'm pretty certain I'd be totally lost if I started out with the third, so I recommend that you read them in order.
Thanks for the URL!
Gentle Reader,
Thanks! I think we dodged the ice storm bullet. We got rain, instead. Now, the big warning has to do with slippery roads because we're due to drop down to the 20s and there is standing water that could turn to black ice. The weatherman seems to think we could still get some sleet or snow but that it's not going to be a big problem, now -- just the road hazard caused by ice on bridges and such. I'm a little annoyed that the school district is doing the "wait and see" thing, again. It wouldn't hurt to go ahead and shut down for a day. It's not like we get many snow days and I'm pretty sure we didn't have any hurricane closings, this year, so they have a bit of wiggle room to work with.
Thanks for letting me know! When Sourcebooks sent it to me, I had no idea it was part 3 in a series. And I asked whether it was a stand-alone, but she hadn't read it yet. I'm definitely going to take your advice.
ReplyDelete--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric
I love love love that first post of snow on a green leaf!
ReplyDeleteI had patients r/s and canceling right and left today because of the so called bad weather we were supposed to have. I have to cross a bridge to get to work so I am kinda worried about Friday. Esp. since I leave for work at 6:45 A.M. We have a full schedule at the office tomorrow but I forsee that changing. lol I have had a rough week so I am glad tomorrow is Friday. I plan on reading lots of books this weekend. I have not finished updating my sidebar yet but I have joined lots of interesting reading challenges. :)
ReplyDeleteAnna,
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome! I have trouble reading books out of order, myself, but there are cases in which a book stands alone fine in spite of being part of a series. I really don't think that works, in this case. And, they're worth buying. :)
Bored_D,
Thank you! And, thanks for visiting my blog. :)
Brittanie,
I think it's good to err on the side of caution, in the case of cold weather. We're just so unable to do anything about it, down here. We don't have salt trucks for coating the ice on bridges, do we? I know we had salt, back home, but no snow plows.
I'm sorry you have to get going so early. That's when the ice is going to be a bit scary. Drive slowly and avoid the shiny, dark spots. Steer into a skid, if you start to slide. That's all you can do. I'm still crossing my fingers that Vicksburg-Warren will cancel classes for the sake of safety. Ice is not worth the risk, in my humble opinion. It's not like it will last and we haven't had any hurricane days, so it wouldn't hurt to shut down for a day, you know?
I'm still immersed in the same books (and reading two Bibles, trying to decide which one to stick with for the year). Hopefully, I'll finish something, this weekend. I've seen all your challenge posts! I haven't found time to comment, yet, but hopefully next week will be somewhat normal for all of us in MS!! Have a great weekend and happy reading! :)
Seriously, that new P&S camera ROCKS! I love the photo of the snowflake on your jacket. I may have to get a little camera I an keep in my purse. The Olympus is fantastic, but it's not something I carry around with me everywhere I go, ya know?
ReplyDeleteYay! Rain is so much better than ice!! Our temps are still below zero, but not nearly as low as predicted. I kept thinking we'd wake up to the negative twenties, but so far, so good. Today it was negative 6 when I woke up. Not bad. No, really. ;)
Les,
ReplyDeleteIt is really an awesome little camera. I highly recommend it. Now that I've played with it a bit, I'm realizing that I need to buy better-quality lenses for my SLR, too. That could cost me. LOL Yep, I know what you mean about not carrying the Olympus everywhere. That was exactly my purpose -- I wanted something small for times when I can't carry the big old SLR but I wanted decent quality. It's so fun I can hardly stand it. :)
Did you hear it snowed for the first time since 1977 in central Florida? This has been quite a winter. Now, to convince all the skeptics that climate change is still occurring and this is just a cold winter (weather, not climate). We were so happy to hear rain . . . except for Kiddo. He wanted to extend his Christmas holiday, but the school district opted to "wait and see" and what they saw was, "Hey, it's fine out there." I love having him around, but I was so glad we didn't end up hopping around in coats, trying to keep warm.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the SWAN THIEVES. I was on the fence about the HISTORIAN.
ReplyDelete-Amy
Life by Candlelight
Amy,
ReplyDeleteI haven't read The Historian, so I can't compare, but I'm a little on the fence, myself. The Swan Thieves kept my attention, but I thought it was flawed in many ways. For example, the characters all sounded exactly the same and the ending was . . . well, I just think it was ridiculous. I can't seem to come up with a better word. And, yet I enjoyed reading the book. I think I was just in the mood for a wordy chunkster, though.