The first five days without power was kind of an adventure. Sort of like camping or going back to the turn of the century with a good book. I drank lots of tea and hot chocolate and made a big batch of beans and corn cakes on the griddle (thank god for gas stoves). Me and the dogs got under five comforters and that was plenty warm for me. I don't even have a working fireplace, so it got a little chilly. I had week old chicks upstairs that are totally dependent on the heat lamp, so I ended up filling several tupperware containers with boiling water and kept changing it out throughout the day. They were grateful for that bit of extra warmth and huddled around it like vagrants by a tin can fire. The worst part of it all was not being able to take a decent bath. My face is all broken out from having greasy hair. I did, on a couple of the warmer days, take a whore's bath (I just love that term) with hot water I heated on the stove. I'm actually glad that I didn't have internet for a week. I read LOTS of books and played violin when my hands weren't too numb.
I took some pictures, but my 5 year old camera battery isn't holding a charge like it used to. I had been meaning to order a new one, but didn't get around to it before the ice storm. So, it died on me after about 30 minutes. I'm kind of bummed about that. Ice just makes everything look so much cooler. After it snowed on the already iced landscape, everything had this eerie Tim Burton-esque appearance. Trees looked like they had been plucked out of the ground and replanted upside down with branches touching the ground instead of the sky. Thursday the river flooded the road a bit and in the morning all the steam came off the river and seemed to fill the whole valley. It was so strange to see a foggy mist when everything was so cold and icy.
Friday, when the roads were finally clear enough for me to go to walmart I was driving home and there was a bright pink sunset. All the ice in the trees and on fencelines took on the pink glow of the sun. There were a million tiny suns reflecting off all of the ice. It was stunning. I am still mad that my camera battery died. Not that I would have been able to really capture the beauty of it.
The last couple of days have been, well...miserable. The romance has worn off. The outside temperature dropped to the teens and the inside temperature has been about 20. The dog's water bowls froze, the pots on the stove with water froze in just a few hours. My dishrag froze. I leave the milk on the counter to stay cold and anything that I don't want to freeze, I put in the refridgerator to keep warm. I decided to go to my mom's today to do some laundry and take a shower and just thaw out for a few hours. When I got close to home I saw each house lit up as I past and I kept telling myself, "Don't get your hopes up. You're not going to have power." As I started down the steep hill, though, I saw my big, gaudy, brash, annoying utility light that I hate so much glowing like a little beacon and I think I actually may have squealed with joy.
Well, here's a few notable pictures. The rest can be seen here.
This is my street. It's hardly recognisable.
Riverview Farm in the style of Tim Burton.
Books I read this week (I really am a nerd):
Flappers and philosophers by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb
The Thirteenth Tale by Dianne Setterfield
and I started Jane Eyre. I haven't read it since highschool. As much as I love Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre is much more captivating compared to a lot of the books written in that era. None of the boring name dropping, and confusing old english language. Charlotte Bronte is pretty short and to the point. I like it. Very easy to follow.
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