Dear Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature,

I am very sorry. My previous post made light of the impending "ice" storm. You showed me what you can do and taught me a valuable lesson. The next time an "ice" storm is in the forecast...yes, I will be prepared. I do respect what you are capable of doing.

Sincerely,

Betsy

You can not heat water with a candle and a small enamel pot. The second day I went shopping for something to heat water with so that I could have instant coffee. I found a scented oil candle thing at Walmart. Walmart was sold out of candles and kerosene burners. I then went to Sportsman's Warehouse and found this tiny pot. My idea, which I thought was so clever, was to put water in the pot and put the pot on top of the candle thing. Nope...you can burn the dang thing all night and it will still not heat water.
We brought the Coleman burner in and were able to heat water for instant coffee every morning. We only left it on about 20 minutes a day. Starbucks, McDonalds and ALL fast food restaurants, and several gas stations were closed.
The highway to my house. This is right at the place where you turn off the highway to go to the road to my house. Looks are deceiving. That's nothing but ice!
This is the road to my house. By the third day we were able to travel on it but one car at a time. It has a pretty nasty hill.
Right outside my office at the University. This was taken Friday, 4 days after the storm.
Four days after the "ice" hit there were still cars in ditches along the highway.





AND WHAT I LEARNED.....
If Papa Jack offers the use of his generator, never let Gary do the talking. Gary told Jack we were doing okay without electricity. We do have gas logs but there's a lot more to life than heat. Like....tv and light!!!

There are wonderful people in this world. One afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Golden Corral opened their doors because they had heat. Their electricity had just come on and they had a salad bar available. They let us, and probably 50 - 60 other people, stay there as long as we wanted to.

Starbucks, Sonic, Chick Fil A, Arby's....they DO close! Don't depend on them for food when there is ice on the road.

Listen to my sister when she tells me to go to the grocery store. I can live by hamburger buns alone but my husband can not!

Red Lobster is so accommodating. They allowed me to order from the lunch menu and Gary to order from the dinner menu one afternoon at 3:00 p.m. We knew this would be lunch and supper!

From 6:00 p.m. (too late to read by natural light) to 8:00 p.m. is pretty quite. We would try to find places to go until bedtime but no one was open. Not even Barnes and Noble or any of the movie theaters. We had to stay home and talk! That's okay but you're cold, thirsty, and just not really in the mood to talk about the day.

LATEST NEWS....Eight schools still do not have power. Over 100,000 (113,000 to be exact) homes still do not have power. Tree limbs are blocking roads everywhere. Gary is at his parent's house right now using a chain saw cutting down limbs that are blocking the driveway.