Tag Archives: weather

LIVE

snow day


So I left this morning for work…

Driving outa the subdivision I did that little thing you learn to do when you live in places that get snow and stuff… You wiggle the wheel, gun the engine and jam on the breaks to get an idea of how bad the roads are.

After I got done sliding down Fournier Drive in our subdivision… (the sound of ABS brakes engaging is more haunting than reassuring)… I turned around and came home.

No way am I going to let the guys drive the pickup truck in this weather.

Come to find out they wouldn’t have to:

Hard Rock called their employees and told them to stay home.

Lindbergh cancelled classes, (meaning Kevin’s kid laden boss wouldn’t be opening the office today)…

And then there’s me… with my stupid laptop and internet connection. I can still work… and will.

Technology has taken all of the fun out of snow-days

Apparently there’s a threat of tornado’s in the area too… ? Snow tornados?

climate change is wicked.

/babbling

LIVE

after the storm


Our power came back on last night around 6pm.

The guys were home first and started binge cleaning so by the time I got home it was mostly back to normal… more importantly – it was WARM.

That storm was something else.

We hung out bundled up in the carport for a good portion of the storm just watching, and listening in awe.

“Eerie” would be the best description for the night.

Raining ice and snow white washing the landscape before our eyes.
Blue-green lightning with occasional pink flashes of transformers blowing in the distance.
and the sounds…

You know that icy, crisp, still silence of a winter nighttime…. Well take that with the groaning and barking of huge branches snapping in the distance… That and these gurgling electrical hums and buzzes of …. (?) – the blowing transformers? … thunder?….

Free Garland

We stopped storm gawking after a close call in the driveway requiring Kevin to grab me and run out of the way from a falling branch from the pine in the front yard.

That tree, as well as the one in the backyard are goners now I’m afraid. They were sickly and gimped to begin with… But now – (what’s left of them) – will probably not survive…. 🙁

We’ve got a tree guy coming this week to give us bids on taking them both down. 🙁 🙁

Meanwhile we used some of those idle, cold, powerless hours to huddle by the fire and make silly signs for the yard.

Yes… It’s one of those “when life gives you lemons” type things – but I dare not speak it…

I *eat* cheese… I don’t write it.

(insert clever serial ending here)

THINK

frozen


This is the first chance I’ve had a moment (and internet access) to check in… sorry…. I’m at work now where I can connect… get a shower…. do some laundry… try and find a tree service…. oh yeah.. and WORK too.

St. Louis got hit by a bad, (they’re saying historic), ice storm last Thursday… I don’t know if it’s all getting a lot of media coverage or not.

We lost power that night around 11pm…

and hasn’t been restored since….

Dad’s power got knocked out too… worse for him.. He doesn’t have a fireplace….. Got him stabilized with a propane heater (a catalytic one – it’s safe to use indoors) we dug up in one of Chad’s co-worker’s basements.

Made the return trip to Tennessee… got lost again.

I’m exhausted.

We’ve lost (are loosing) two trees….

House has been reduced to a barn….

It’s nearly impossible for me to comprehend that we can set a robot down onto Mars… or we can pick up the receiver and phone sex with someone in Bangladesh – yet we still get power by stringing wires to one another in trees.

This is the second time this year… *the last “historic” storm we got knocked out out for five days in triple-digit heat.

It’s reasonable to assume the extreme weather is going to increase as well as the inneptitude of AmerenUE to deal with emergencies of this scale within what I would have though to be a “reasonable” amount of time.. (*with ample preparedness / planning and investment).

We’re talking about going off the grid in 07…. Or at least installing countermeasures like generators.

This razor thin veneer of civilization is … well.. just that…. RAZOR thin….

The only bad thing about learning how to perspective shift is these new eyes you grow…

You start seeing all the constructs…. Like the rickety one that stands between lounging around in your PJs while playing Xbox and being found a frozen dead slab of meat in your own home.

(insert clever serial ending here)

LIVE

weather or not


We’re headed right into thunderstorm season… A rather mean ribbon of them slipped through town last night.

I’m going to wager the storms this year will be just as, if not more violent and spectacular as last year’s… A result of that climate change thing nobody wants to talk about?

Well… Al Gore’s talking about it… In a movie about it…. with a nice tie-in educational website about it…. so why am I so smirky about it?

Yeah… we’ll go see it… I just find *all* politicians suspect anymore…. Does Al want to really save the planet?… or his political career.

Speaking of crunchy earth-girl concerns… I had a little… urr..epiphany(?) over the weekend.

I’ve gotten over the earth-day-hippy angst about petroleum.

Yes… It’s bad…. it’s poisoned our planet… our bodies…. our wildlife… our politics….

But if wasn’t for it – I wouldn’t be sitting here typing my brain barf into a computer and sharing it with anyone who cares to read it.

And there’s the cool part… “It” (oil) – has propelled our society to a technological level to where we *can* (and will) discover / invent a new solution.

Those of the old oily paradigm have a stake in maintaining the status-quo and are simply doing everything in their power to delay the inevitable oh look a chicken.