There's a storm rolling in up here.

We have gas at this house, so I can use the gas cooktop, but the furnace needs a little electricity to operate the fan, so it does start to get cold. If it got real bad, we'd probably go to our beach house which has a woodstove. There's a propane furnace there, too, but I think it also needs electricity.. don't really know!

We've talked about getting a gas generator but they're so noisy... and then for the last three or four years we haven't had a problem. We're now on the upper-end of the grid, so our lights come back up almost immediately... not like the "outlying areas."

Piffka
sounds like it's time to break out the books, games, and candles. We were lucky last night that we didn't lose the power. Since we don't have any other form of heat other than electric and oil which won't work without the electric I'm not crazy about losing the power in the winter during a snow storm, although I love losing the power once in a blue moon during a summer storm ;-)

Timber
Sounds like you have a great set up over there ;-)

Piffka
It's good that you have another place to go to with a wood stove. That must be cozy. Don't forget to stock up on toilet paper before it starts, lol

Gezzy -- the first thing I do if I KNOW we're going to lose power is wash the dishes and take a nice hot bath! Then I'll get out the games. And I've already got out all the candles from Christmas. On Christmas Eve I had (I counted them) thirty-three candles going. I've also got some oil lamps.

Glad you made it through your storm unscathed!

Timber -- your description of the ice fog sounds fantastic. I want to see it! I'd be with the puppies, champing at the bit (oops, mixed metaphor) to get out and see the dawn!

Stay warm, everybody.

Gezzy, good news that you weren't snowed in, especially considering your shortage of tp.

BlaiseDaly--GeneralLee, Hi!!! I'm mmediane on abuzz. Good to see you here.

Beth, you never fail to amaze me. Crotchless knitted panties, of all things. There must be a story there, but I don't know if you can repeat it on a2k. (Oh go ahead, let's hear all about it!)

Timber, your description of the ice fog was beautiful. I had never seen an ice storm until I came to Connecticut. Looking out the window the next morning, it seemed like every tree was jewel encrusted with diamonds, glittering in the sunlight. The ice fog sounds just as beautiful and less destructive than an ice storm.
Unbelievably beautiful.

Well, I suppose I would finally get to work on my dining room walls. And the living room walls. And the guest bedroom walls. (Need to rinse wallpaper paste off, spackle and otherwise fill cracks, and prime. Sigh.)

But I would probably read under batches of comforters. I mean, blankets.

Piffka
Thanks. I also have tons of candles and oil lams. The oil lamps are my favorite because it reminds me of the old days, not that I'm old enough to have lived in the days without electricity, but my mother was and I love watching those old westerns. We may not have gotten as much snow as I thought, but it's still going to be a problem getting out to the main road. Looks like my son and I will be doing lots of shoveling tomorrow, sigh.

Diane
Hi there. Great to see you. I'm still bewildered about the knit crotchless underwear myself, lol.

Ossubuco
That doesn't sound like very much fun, but if you lost the power you'd have an excuse not to do it, lol. I'm bad (smirk) ;-)

Hey Gezzy, hope you're doing okay after the storm.... it was a big one, huh?

I love being here in Florida watching the weather up north, even tho' it's only 42F here, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Oh dear Misti! I hope you don't have to go dig out a sweater or something!

Piffka, diesel generators are quieter and generally run longer with less maintenance. i'm saving my pennies to buy one some day, so that when the next typhoon comes around i'll be pretty set. talk about noisy, gas generators can be heard all over the island at night, it's driving a lot of people crazy. of course the complainers are the ones with no generators.

Chatoyant, yep, I sure do......got the woolies on tonight:)

Well Misti, we didn't get as much as I thought we would, but we did get enough to keep us from going out until today. This afternoon my son and I were out shoveling which would have taken us 2 days, but my 3rd cousin neighbor saw us out there, jumped in his tractor and plowed us out in just a few minutes. Boy is my back grateful and so am I ;-) Now that we can get out we are headed to the mall tomorrow to do some after Christmas shopping.

When I am house-bound (and it happens to me every week; I have no driving license, and there is no public transport in Israel on Saturdays), I divide my time between chores, watching TV, reading newspapers and magazines (mainly on the WWW) and visiting A2K.

Gezzy, thank God for 3rd cousins and kind hearts! What a nice thing for him to do:)

Chivalry is alive and well!

Give that man some wine.

<a belated, "howdy do", to Mme Diane>

Hmmm.... is there some kind of progression where the 3rd cousin has a tractor, the 2nd cousin has a snow plow and your first cousin has a coffee plantation on Jamaica?

I doubt that that Jamaican plantation was for coffee culture . . .

Oooh, I missed that! Hi, General. I've missed you!

WE LOST POWER!!! I've been trying to catch up with a bunch of postings... lost power yesterday in the morning and didn't get it back until way after dark... about 8pm.

Those candles and oil lamps sure came in handy. Our temperature actually rose though, to 52... just in front of the high winds.

No snow and all is calm, but not so bright this morning!

Wished for a generator and now know to wish, more specifically, for a diesel generator!!! Thanks Pueo! I wanted to watch a DVD since I couldn't do much else! Luckily, I had drawn a hot bath for myself, just finished drying some laundry, made a fresh pot of coffee (no coffee grinder, all whole beans) and washed the dishes.

Thank heavens for electricity though. It does make my world better.

Our forecasters keep promising rain and showers, but all we got today, so far, is just enough to wet the ground. I told my wife, if it doesn't rain another day, that I would need to water our flowering plants, because they need water! The meteorologists are responsible for a whole lot of dead plants. c.i.

My dearest Pathfinder, what else would one do with a Jamaican plantation if not coffee?

Hey there Ms. Piffka, it's been a while indeed. I'm glad you've got your power back. When we think of the terrible alternative, me losing my power down here, I think it all worked out for the best.

C.I. I think I've found my new excuse for the new year, "hey man, don't hassle me, it's the meteorologists fault".