Snow

Just when you thought freezing rain was difficult to deal with, a new storm came through this morning ushering in snow. Louisville got hammered- six new inches of white on top of their ice. Kristi called early this morning informing me they were in the middle of an intense winter snow storm and they had lost power at 7 AM. My heart sunk. What can you do when you lose power? Just about nothing.


An hour later huge, white, wet flakes began falling at a record pace here in Lexington. In a flash we had two inches white blanketing the world I could see. The sun broke through for a moment and I rushed outside in hopes to capture the splendor through the lens of my camera. The ice shone like diamonds in the brilliant light and the world had a glow as the ice glittered from beneath the new layer of pure white. It was lovely, gorgeous even, but as the snow piled up, the trees began to bend, bushes began to snap and the worry of losing power was always in the back of my mind.


In fact it pushed me into over drive. I ran the washing machine four times until the basket of dirty clothing was empty. The dishwasher was soon rinsing, the vacuum was whirling, the garbage disposal was grinding and food was baking in the oven and microwave. You certainly do not appreciate what you have until it is gone and electricity is high on that list! The boys pitched in (forced was more like it), but work needed to be done especially when you are confined to indoors. And I never mind being home when it is clean!


Soon the phone began to ring off the hook. Visiting teachers calling to make sure we were alright, VT supervisors asking us to call our sisters to check in on them. As I called my women three were safe and warm at home, but my 4th sister answered her cell phone and told me she had just slid off the road trying to get to her cousins house when their apartment lost power. Thankfully her husband was ahead of her and was getting her pushed out. I could imagine her panic sitting in the car with her baby hoping to be freed. I relayed my information to the Relief Society President who was at the hub of the frenzy. Home Teachers, scout leaders and members of the primary presidency all phoned to make sure we were well and letting us know of meetings that had been canceled. You certainly can never feel alone or in need when you have a ward full of willing and wonderful people there if you need them. That is such a great blessing when we are so far away from family.Rich took our van to work early in the morning before the ice and slush froze again. Not that I minded. The kids will be home again tomorrow marking the 4th straight day and making it SNOW DAY #6 for the year. These poor kids will be going to school until July at this rate.


Though my fellas are not complaining one bit. In fact every time they announce another snow day, they get the widest grins. But really, who doesn't enjoy a day off from school? They bundle up and play for hours on end with friends. After their noses and fingers and toes are frozen solid and their jeans are sopping wet, they come in, swap pants and gloves, eat some food and head back out for round two, three, four..... They would never let such lovely snow go to waste. They sled on the hill, build snow forts, battle with light sabers and thoroughly have a ball. I love our cul-de-sac and wonderful friends the boys have just waiting outside our front door.


Cleanup slowly began this afternoon, but in the storms path it left 473,000 across the state without power and caused nearly impossible travel conditions in some areas.


The only larger outage in Kentucky occurred last September, when fierce winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ike knocked out power to about 600,000 customers.


When I talked to Kristi later tonight I discovered nearly all of my old ward in Louisville was in the cold. Traci, Vicki, Lacey, Cynthia, Melissa- all my blogging buddies- are without power. They gave them the range of 7-10 days to get it back on. She also said her neighborhood had so many trees down it looked as if a bomb went off. Huge, lovely old trees are great for shade and beauty, but in a wind storm, tornado or ice storm they equal TROUBLE! Todd just happened to be at Lowe's when a shipment of 12 generators were delivered. He hopped in line and $800 later was a proud owner of a lifesaving power source. I know Traci borrowed one from friends, but I hope the rest are safe and warm on this cold wintry night.


Many Lexington residents are without power as well and they have opened various high school as shelters. A number of counties just south of Fayette have declared themselves in a state of emergency after their main water lines burst leaving residents without water and 70% of the people without power. They also have had flooding in areas close to us as well. I feel blessed we have been spared so many of these difficult problems.


The main concern now is that we are not supposed to get above freezing until Sunday and then a new wave of snow storms are set to hit on Monday. Man, I am seriously not sure when life will fully resume. I know I bash folks around here for not getting out in a bit of snow, but ice storms are scary, crazy and very dangerous, so this one will take some time to heal from. I'll just have to keep you posted. Until then know we are healthy, warm and safe indoors- the kids and I here and Rich slaving away at the hospital. Life does continue on.

Over an inch of ice