The Iceman Cometh... and Kicketh our Ass

As I type this post I am warm and toasty. I have internet, Kaeleigh is in the next room, and Max is purring at my feet. I wish we were home instead of at the Radisson.

We drove home from Reading around 4pm, amazed at the trees. This was the view for most of our drive.The roads were not icy, but the trees were a-glistening with more than a light coating of ice. Every once in a while the sun would come out, making the tress look beautiful and shiny. Once we got to our neighborhood the beauty of it all began to fade. As we pulled down a side street the wind picked up, fiercely shaking the trees and bombarding my car with pieces of ice. From inside the car you would have sworn it was raining stones.

Pulling up to the house we saw the ice continue to rain down and behind them our Christmas lights twinkling. We unpacked the car as the wind shed the ice from the trees and down onto us. I was moving my truck from the street to our driveway when I saw the Christmas lights go out and I knew it wasn't good.

A quick check out back revealed that a branch had come down on our power lines:

We called the electric company and were greeted with a message about how busy they were "because of the ice storm". After 5-6 tries we were able to input our phone number and join the list of people who's power were out. The very long list. We also called 911 because there were power lines laying in our yard. They sent out the fire company who were slightly helpful but there wasn't really much they could do. They told us where the nearest shelter was and that the electric company had been fielding problem calls since 2AM and they were currently working on the calls they took around 7:30 this morning. The best estimate they could give us as to when our power would be back on was Tuesday. Lovely.

Drew, his Dad, Kae and I each packed a bag. We called ahead to find out if they accepted pets and for a $25 fee they did. We then also packed up Max and headed over to the hotel. Once we checked in and unloaded the car I took our (only) cat carrier back to the house to get Sara. I was able to pick her up but when I tried to put her in the carrier she fought me like crazy. She gave me a nice gash across my palm, said something I'm sure was feline profanity and disappeared somewhere into the dark house. At this point it's 7pm and pitch black. I'm walking around alone in a dark house with my palm bleeding trying to find this stupid cat and then I came to my senses. I laid out some blankets for her in the basement, which is warmer than the rest of the house. It's (hopefully) only one night and the basement has never gotten really cold so she should be ok.

We've been talking about getting the cats de-clawed as we start to get new furniture, she's going first!

So we'll see what tomorrow brings with this weather... wish us luck.