Worst Ice Storm In 10 Years
You likely heard of the ice storm that pretty much shut down huge parts of the country the weekend before Christmas. Many of you experienced it first hand so you know exactly what I’m talking about. The storm came in on Sat. and soon took out the power to tens of thousands of homes, covered everything with close to a half inch of ice which took down huge branches from trees and even snapped utility poles in many areas. The streets and side roads became ice skating rinks for vehicles which brought all travel to a stand still. Barry county, where we live, was among the hardest hit.
We have a kerosene space heater and a small generator that are survivors of the time when we traveled in a bus. The generator is at least 25 years old and could be 30. In any case, it supplied power to the well allowing us to get water stored up for a day at a time and run the furnace a couple times a day. We used a lot of candles and flashlights in the evenings and went to bed early. All in all, it wasn’t too bad. Vicky and I commented that even without power here, we were still much better off than when we lived in Alaska right after we were married. Times were good then but they are much better now. Now that the power is back on we are living the great life again.
We were in hopes of getting a message out to you before Christmas but as it turned out, it was almost a week before I had the computer turned on and even then the internet service wasn’t up. So I trust you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and friends. We had Vicky’s folks here and my Mom and had a great time even in spite of the fact there was no electric.
We were running the generator the morning of the day the electric came back on in the afternoon when something happened. As of yet, we are not sure exactly what it was but it wasn’t good. As soon as the generator was plugged in outside things started smoking inside. Everything was set as it had been for the several days prior and we didn’t have any problems. We don’t know if something went wrong inside the generator or just what but it managed to fry lots of stuff in the house. Even things that did not have smoke coming out of them don’t work. We are still finding things that aren’t working. The bread maker was the fist thing that had lots of smoke coming out of it. Something smoked up the basement but we still don’t know what that was. To be honest, I’m afraid to check that out as that is where our TV was along with the stereo, etc. The electric space heater we used in our bedroom is toast but so far the thing I miss the most is our electric blanket. We have not run the furnace in the office building for 10 years or better. When I come home late at night, Vicky has the blanket turned on so that I can thaw out when I crawl in.
TWO Stuck Trucks
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