The Past Couple Days

Well.  That was fun.

It all began Sunday around noon, just as the Packers' game was about to start.  The thermometer read 33.3 degrees F and the wind was blowing from the east.  I watched chickadees, nuthatches and pine grosbeaks quartering into the wind to get to the bird feeder.


I was all settled down in the living room, a nice warm fire in the wood stove, ready to switch back and forth between the Packers and their winning season and the Broncos with their winning quarterback.

Then, a message on the TV screen.  My receiver had lost contact with the satellite.  I looked outside. No more birds, either.

Yeah.  That would do it.  Oh, well.  I'll get on the computer for a while and maybe the receiver can get in contact before the games are over.

I was just about to leave a message on Facebook when the power blinked.  And again.  And again.  I was trying to shut down the computer when the power went out for good.

The rest of Sunday was perfect for doing anything you wanted, as long as it didn't involve going out of doors or required electricity.  It was a whipper-snapper of a storm--trees whipping back and forth and branches and trunks snapping off.   I heard later there were wind gusts close to 90 mph.

Heavy, wet snow plastered itself to the east side of everything it ran into.  Then, as the storm blew itself out and the temperature dropped, that wet snow froze solid.

The storm knocked out electricity in Moose Pass, Cooper Landing, Hope, Girdwood, and much of the Hillside above Anchorage.  Mine didn't come back on until 4:30 this morning, or 40 hours later.

Now I don't have any excuses not to do the housework I had planned to do Sunday during commercials in the football games.

After the storm.  Note the snow plastered on one side only.  That bright light in the lower right is the front end loader clearing my driveway.

The morning after.  Note the black spruce saplings bent over with the weight of wet snow now frozen to them, while the larger white spruce in the background are fine.