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My thoughts released; a mind set free |
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These pages contain my thoughts, from meandering ideas and persuasions to deep cerebrations and serious mentations. Why, for what purpose? To release my mind and set creativity free. Somewhere inside the constraints of my mind dwells a writer, a poet, an artist who paints with words. In here I release those constraints and set the artist free. Perhaps, lost somewhere in the depths of thought, is a story or a poem, waiting to be written. 
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| Last night before I turned in I wrote about an impending storm that could hit this morning. It was supposed to move in this morning around nine, with a ten percent chance for light snow increasing to one hundred percent by noon, falling temperatures through the day, and increasing winds reaching gusts over fifty miles per hour by afternoon. I also wrote that most of the time, they are wrong and we either get better weather or worse. Since our move here in June, it's been better weather, so we are due for worse weather. We got it! I woke around eight and it was already snowing enough to have covered everything. By nine, the winds had picked up and the snowfall had increased. Now, at ten o'clock, the snow is still falling steadily, the temperature has dropped to eighteen degrees, and the winds are up to twenty miles per hour gusting to forty. Visibility is about a mile but drops to near zero when the gusts hit. We are no longer under a winter storm warning, we are in a blizzard warning until midnight. We are sitting pretty good as long as the electricity doesn't go out. We have electric heat, cooking, and our water is from a well. I have an indoor propane heater and plenty of gas I can bring inside if we need it for heat, but our propane camp stove is not designed for indoor use. We would have to vent the house to use it inside, which would also make the house colder inside. The power company did trim trees and branches a few weeks ago, so let's hope the power stays on. The only other concern was my wife having to work from nine to five-thirty today, but her boss sent a text telling her to stay home and take a vacation day. I may venture into town, about six miles, a little later to fill our five-gallon water containers and look for some eggroll wrappers, but only after the plow truck goes by; it will give me a good test of our snow/winter tires. I also have my portable fish shelter set up just off the back deck. I wanted to set it up and take it down a few times before I take it out on the ice. Today is also a good test to see how well it holds in the wind and how warm my heater keeps it in below zero temperatures. Although I purchased it for ice fishing, which I'm taking up as a winter hobby, it also makes a terrific smoking shack to keep me out of the snow, wind, and cold. Since it goes up and comes down easily and quickly, about ten minutes for me alone, but it will go faster with practice, it's handy for both. Also, since it's not a good idea to pack it away wet, and it does collect a lot of condensation, it's nice to have a place to set up by the house when I"m not using it out on the lake. |
| Is this the calm before the storm? It's warm out tonight, no wind, and the moon is shining through a light haze, making a halo effect in the night sky. The temperature has slowly increased through the day and into the night, with midnight being our high. Then, by seven tomorrow morning, the temps will have dropped by ten degrees and the winds will be blowing at twenty miles per hour. By five o'clock in the morning, we'll have a ten percent chance for light snow, but by seven it will increase to sixty percent and climb to one hundred percent in the next two hours and hold there until afternoon while the temperature continues to drop and the winds continue to increase; they are predicting gusts in excess of fifty miles per hour tomorrow afternoon. The temperature will drop through Christmas Eve morning, with a low of negative eleven. According to the forecast, we will get a nice coating of ice before the snow starts and see up to five inches by the time it stops. We are pretty well settled in for the storm with plenty of food on hand and no plans to go anyplace except for my poor wife who has to work tomorrow. She'll be driving in about the time it hits, so hopefully, we don't get the ice. She will have to drive home about the time it's supposed to start letting up, but with five inches of powdery snow and fifty plus mile per hour winds, it's going to be wicked. If the storm hits as predicted, I may just have to drive her in and go get her, since she hates driving in these conditions. My biggest concern is that the power may go out. Since we moved here in June, we have noticed that anytime we get high winds, the power tends to go out. They are quick to get it back on, but with a winter storm, it could take longer. We have electric heat and our stove is also electric, so we don't do well without power. If needed, I can bring our camp stove in from the garage, it works on propane, but then we need to be cautious of carbon monoxide and make sure we keep the house vented. In the summer, this isn't a problem, but with temperatures dropping below zero, it becomes a problem. Oh, and I already have an indoor propane heater for my fish shelter that we can use to keep it warm if we lose power. Now, we wait and see what tomorrow will bring us. It's been my observation that the storm predictions are incorrect, we either get far less or far more. So far, since we moved, it has been far less when it's come to bad weather, sooner or later, however, that's going to change. No matter what, it's going to get very cold. |
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