January Storm: Day 3

Sun breaking through at noon on Monday

Our electric power went off Sunday evening just before complete darkness fell.

We had expected this would happen and had marveled all day that it had not. There were a few warning flickers then the house settled into dusky twilight. 

Jim took a flashlight, went to the shop and tinkered a bit with the generator before trundling it through the crusty snow to the covered back porch.

Frigid air seeped into the lower level and up through the stairwell as he opened the back door. Within minutes he had done whatever must be done at the breaker box and the refrigerators and freezer were functional. I was delighted to find that we had a few ceiling lights working upstairs as well.

I immediately moved a chair to take advantage of the ceiling LED light near the head of the stairs and went on reading. Jim wasn't sure how many hours the generator would run on a tank of gas and not knowing how long an outage we could expect he turned off the generator after about an hour and a half. 

There went my reading light! 

I fussed about with a big candle, an oil lamp, wondering how folks managed ever to do much after dark. Jim propped up a rectangular LED flashlight so that I could finish my chapter.  Off to bed at a mere 9:30 reminding myself that we were warm and snug, that morning would come.

I woke at midnight with light in my face: the electricity had been restored and the light over my desk was surging through my bedroom door.

Monday morning was grey with snowflakes swirling--not freezing rain!

When I checked the outside temp at 9 a.m. it was 14 F. 

Around noon we began to see breaks in the heavy clouds, the snow had stopped. 

We hardly dared believe the sunshine would prevail but it did, creating blue shadows on snow and almost blinding glitter of ice on every tree and shrub. 

I stepped onto the back porch to record the effects of sun, clouds, ice and snow.

Wind struck me, bitterly cold, and I didn't linger.

Winter-shriveled roses and foxglove poking drearily through the crust of snow.

Looking along the edge of the south ravine.

My cat litter dump is tucked down behind the first rim of trees. 

Although I diligently scooped the litter boxes I didn't slide down to the dumping spot.

Later in the afternoon when the westering sun gilded the treetops.

Almost sundown. 

Willis, blinking in the sun that slanted into the front porch.

The outside cats have had extra treats, offerings of warmed milk, larger helpings of tinned food.

Cold or not, Willis and Sally the two oldsters, can be persnickety. Shelby [aka Crabby-cat] will gobble anything put down in front of her and has to be monitored not to harass Willis and Sally.

I decided to wash the fleece throws that have covered the Amish bentwood rockers that usually sit on the porch. We brought the chairs inside Saturday as they got a thorough soaking from blown-in rain.

The indoor cats sniffed and fussed at the blankets until I decided a washing was needed.

I tossed the laundered blankets into the electric dryer, confidently pushed selection buttons--the dryer didn't start.

Jim and I elbowed each other attempting every known method to get the thing going. It has never before needed a reset after a power outage.

Pushed to the back of my mind were several recent warning signals that the dryer was nearing the end of its 16 years of service: cycles that stopped within minutes of starting or conversely went way past the allotted time.

It was a good unit, a Maytag Bravo sized to handle quilts and blankets easily.

I am very over computerized appliances with 'mother boards' or whatever, chips that are manufactured in China or some such place.

I feared that simple dryers with manual controls were no longer available but found that both Lowes and the local Appliance Store carry in stock at least half a dozen models that have a choice of 3 or 4 cycles and temperatures, with simple dial/knob controls.

Several hours of comparisons online and I've made a list of 3 or 4 to look at once the roads are clear and [hopefully] temperatures have moderated later in the week. These are agreeably priced at under $600.

I regularly peg laundry on the back porch clotheslines, especially bedding; often the items require a 15 minute tumble in the dryer to be completely fluffed and dry.

Meanwhile, the armload of damp cat blankets came upstairs to be draped over chairs and the half wall partitions that frame the stairwell.

Polar fleece dries quickly and the small clean blankets have been folded away until the rocking chairs can be returned to the porch.

The sun warmed the afternoon to 20 F--apparently enough to affect the layer of ice on the roof.

Earlier this evening as the frigid temperatures returned we heard a sudden noise--as though something had landed on the roof. We hurried out, flashlights beaming into the cold darkness, but there was nothing to be seen. 

A friend living at the other end of the county had the same experience and sent us a link explaining 'frost quakes' or 'cryoseisms." It seems many area people have heard these quakes as this storm is going through its various iterations of sleet, freezing rain, snow, quick temperature drops.

Always interesting to learn something new, but I could take fresh knowledge without sudden reverberating 'booms.'