Be Careful What You Wish For

The Oak outside my kitchen window. The limbs,

heavy with ice, are dragging the ground. This was early in the ice storm.

 

I know, I know....I was wishing for more winter weather in the form of snow and 20 degree temps, but not ice and not power outages and tree limbs down and messes to clean. For crying out loud, not that!!

Winter Storm Pax..........akin to a hurricane in that we were left with downed limbs over power lines, through roofs, on roofs, around the yard, across roads.....we were left with no power and no water. And like any disaster, we also experienced neighbors, friends and family checking on and helping each other, sharing food if they saw a need. Or offers of a hot shower (if they were lucky enough to have power and water) and some help in cleaning up the debris.

A few differences....it's cold (a wet cold, the worst kind) instead of 150 degrees Fahrenheit with 100% humidity. We do have ways of staying warm, though - be it a fireplace, lots of blankets, space heaters that use kerosene (dangerous by the way) or warming centers set up at the elementary school. We don't have to worry so much about the food going bad since it's in the 30's outside, unless the outages linger. And we won't have to deal with the gargantuan mosquitos the size of helicopters that arrive a few days after a hurricane.

We have a mess to clean up. I had a beautiful oak tree just outside my kitchen window that is now riddled. It had many huge limbs to break off, one of which landed on my roof. There was minor damage. Mama, however, was not so lucky. She had a pine limb about the size of a half dollar come completely through her roof into one of the bedrooms. She's fine...a little upset that she had to leave her home. But with all those pines around her home, it was way too dangerous to let her stay there. She is at my sister's home and a good thing too because she along with everyone else in our town not only lost power and water, but her phone service.

Here, I will leave you with a few of the pictures I took from inside the house looking out. I wouldn't dare go outside to take them for fear of being impaled by a flying pine or oak limb. We will be busy cleaning up for the next few days. Hope everyone affected will be safe and warm and that their electricity will be restored soon. I will post more about Winter Storm Pax, I'm sure. It's a rare occasion for us. The story needs to be told.

***These photos were taken with my cell phone, so the quality is not the best.

More of the Oak.

Still more......

The beauty of this in real life is far better than this photo shows...

Broken limb from the Oak ....

Another view, and very minor damage.

Seed pods on a crepe myrtle.

The quality is lacking here as I had to zoom way in to get this Cardinal.

 

Just so pretty.

And pretty still.

 

 

So, I guess the next time I go wishing for more winter weather....I'll need to be more specific. Ice is pretty, but so dangerous. We are not equipped in the south for this type weather, really I don't know who could be. Snow is one thing, which for us can be crippling. But ice, that's a whole other ballgame.

 

More later,

Laurie