Ice, Ice, Ice!

From this past week, I have grown a new loathing for frozen water. It's not that I hate the little bits of ice that float in a soda, or even the ice that allows you to skate on a pond...oh, no, not that ice. It is the ice that sticks hard to the roads, to the car, trees and power lines. That is the malicious ice that I am talking about. You think it's so sweet and pretty when it makes for a pretty photo, but then when you start to drive and can't get traction, or when you slide through a stop light, or when your power goes out for days on end, you will know what I'm talking about.

Ok, well, that sounded a little harsher than I really feel, but I do have a new respect for that crazy thing called ice. We had about 6 inches of snow last Tuesday. On Tuesday afternoon/evening, sleet and freezing rain began to fall. It covered everything with a thick sheet of ice. Power lines and trees fell, putting over a million people in Louisville in the dark and cold. Here is our back yard after the first of the snow.

Here is Rusty diligently shovelling snow during the rain...better to get the snow when it's a powder than when it has a sheet of ice on it! Our power didn't go out until Wednesday morning, so we were more fortunate than most. But, once the power went out, the cold started seeping in. We ended up staying with our friends, Clint and Jeanne. They even let our cats stay with them! So, our little family moved over to their house for a couple of days. They were so very hospitable and gracious hosts! We even were able to borrow an air mattress from a couple in our community group, so we only had one night on the hard floor.

Momma Vicki and Daddy Russell sent us a kerosene heater too! Every store within the area was sold out and they couldn't tell us when they could expect to get more in. We desperately wanted to get home, but it was too cold to stay there without some sort of heater. The heater is amazing!! It gets so super hot!! So, it does work very well! Our power came back on eventually and our family moved back home. Boy, was it amazing to be back in our own bed! And, the cats weren't freaking out, so we were able to get a good night's rest...the first in a very long time! Boy, it sure is easy to take electricity for granted when you have it! We were so grateful for our friends to open their home to us, to Momma Vicki and Daddy Russell for their generous, amazing gift of a heater, and for our little Louisville Gas and Electric workers that eventually restored our power! :)