Hunkering Down

I'm still here, safe and warm, hunkering down to wait out this ice storm.  I woke up this morning to sleet coming down, which is good.  

Sleet doesn't weigh down the power lines like ice does. 

Alas, we're not out of the woods yet.  At around 3:00 PM, the sleet changed to freezing rain, and as of this writing -- around 4:15 PM, we're starting to build up a bit of ice along the roof lines, 

and tree branches.  

I stepped outside a few moments ago to take a couple of pictures, but didn't stay out long.  It's way too cold.

As of right now, I still have electricity and water, but they're saying the worst of it will come through in the overnight hours.  Fortunately, we've got the King Of Weather with us throughout all of this.  

Matt is the best, and he has a sense of humor. 

I've been watching his livestream pretty much all day -- off and on.  They're still saying we're right in the middle of the highest impact area, but I'm hoping and praying the power stays on.  Or that if it does go out, it's back on relatively quickly.  

And by "quickly" I mean in a day or two rather than a week or two.  Everyone wants to compare this to the ice storm of '94, when some people were without power for three weeks, but Matt had a man from the Tennessee Valley Power Authority on the livestream earlier.  He was saying that they'd learned so much in the last 30 years -- one of those things being to keep the trees cut well back from the power lines.  He'd said most of the damage wasn't actually from the ice, but from trees and limbs falling across those lines, breaking them and breaking poles.   

Anyway, if we still have power in the morning, we should be good for the rest of this round.  Even if we don't, I've got firewood and knitting.  And instant coffee if the need arises. 

Let's just hope it doesn't come to that.  

I'll try to keep you all updated as much as I can.  Right now, I think I'll go try to move some of the buckets of water out of my bathtub and take a hot shower while I still can. 

Laters...