Chilling Out Not What It's Cracked Up To Be

No April Foolin', the darn weather dudes were right. We were in the heart of a wicked ice storm. I took this picture at 8 a.m. and realized it doesn't matter how little ice it seems to be, most of us were not driving to the office.

Especially since it just kept accumulating all day.

I fired up the laptop and was able to work for 3 hours. The lights had flickered a few times and then, at 10:44 a.m., they went out. Without electricity, our wi-fi router wouldn't work, so not more work for me. I shut down my laptop to conserve power. Our lovely cellphone provider wasn't providing great signals all day either. Add to that, no running water or use of indoor plumbing.

I forgot what it was like to live like Laura Ingalls!

Most of the day I kept an eye on our bunny ear trees, which normally stand pretty straight up. This was early in the morning before even more ice accumulated.

At their lowest point, this was how close it looked like at least the right one would break.

But then the ice stopped coming and it warmed up just enough for us to witness an ice rain as the ice broke up and fell from all the trees. At the end of the day, the trees hadn't parted ways but they put some distant between themselves like fighting siblings.

Throughout the day we could just hear the snap, crackle, pop as tree branches (mostly pines) were falling everywhere – in the woods around us, in the neighbor's yard, a few in our yard, and all the way down the street.

This is typical of the destruction everywhere in that darn targeted purple area. No surprise about the power outages. In the early evening, many of us on our street were notified that power was restored. We're all like, "No, it's not." So we all had to resubmit our outage reports. And think that put us to the back of the line – of thousands of customers without power.

When we went to bed in our dark, chilly houses last night, the last we heard was that our power would be restored by SATURDAY afternoon. Ugh! 

Somehow managed to get a little sleep – even without my electric mattress pad. First World problems, I know. But dang. We do take a lot for granted! This morning, I went to the office to be warm and productive since yesterday was a lost cause.

Suddenly I was getting texts that there were Alliant trucks in the neighborhood. Would I dare get up my hopes?? Jim texted my a picture of our dining room lights on at 11:50 a.m. (25 hours without power). So I raced home and showered and made it on time to church for 1 p.m. Good Friday service. I guess God really does answer our prayers on His time.

Here a few "cool" shots from yesterday...

Poor birds falling victim to fake spring and looking for anything to eat. Icicles weren't doing it!

I hope this didn't kill off any of our budding trees!

And how safe our these power lines in our yard?

I was happy to learn, though, that there are things you can do when it's a daytime power outage.

Mind out of the gutter! I meant practically completing a whole baby blanket! 💗

Want to send a special shout out to all those offering up generators, water for our toilets, and a place to stay. We have the best people in our lives. Take care of your friends and loved ones, too! 

And we've potentially got more of that freezing rain coming tonight. Be smart and be careful out there, friends!

The Day that Jack Built

Do you recall a very old nursery rhyme called "The House that Jack Built"? By the end, the verse goes something like this:

This is the rooster that crowed in the morn,

That waked the priest all shaven and shorn,

That married the man all tattered and torn,

That kissed the maiden all forlorn,

That milked the cow with the crumpled horn,

That scared the dog,

That worried the cat,

That chased the rat,

That ate the malt

That lay in the house that Jack built.

That was a bit like our Saturday. Hold tight while I try to string this together...

This is the storm that caused the wind and rain...

That blew over the tree on the power line down the road that led to a 10:20 a.m.-1:30 p.m. power outage...

That postponed showers (personal, not rain) and the shotgun start from noon to 2 p.m. ...

That led to pools of water on the course...

That gave us hope despite the darkening skies and eventual lightning that let us all finish or partially finish ONE hole...

That meant an early dinner and raffle basket win for Jim – but since the coach mentioned "a moisturizer basket" I had to run up and claim it.

That led to an early evening at home in the house that Jim and Robyn own.

(I hope that sums it up! Sorry it doesn't rhyme!)

Powered Up

We thankfully had power restored by the time I got home after 8 p.m. last night. As far as we know, nothing spoiled in the fridge or anything – since also thankfully, it wasn't as hot as it had been on Saturday and Sunday.

So I had no issues hearing my alarm this morning. I even took a second to take a picture of our rain gauge for Monday's total. Over 2 inches!

Work was fast and busy today. So many meetings. Didn't necessarily have a productive day. But it flew by.

Which is always nice on Tuesdays when we have golf league at SentryWorld. Of course, based on previous exhibit of rainfall and showers all morning in Stevens Point, we had "cart path only" golf tonight. Which takes forever.

And it did.

I had one par dance but also one ball taking a "swim" so I didn't have the greatest score. Still, it's golf. It's summer. It's not work.

I think our round took almost 2 1/2 hours because we couldn't drive to the ball. Ever. So I am yawning and hitting the hay as fast as I can here.

Sure is nice to type this on my computer keypad instead of my phone! God bless electricity!

Hey, Hey, Hallmark... Goodbye

I didn't fully comprehend the destruction of our fried cable/DVR box. Until the handsome technician came today to replace that box. 

When he said, "I hope you didn't DVR too much because it's all gone now," I said, "Oh no! My Hallmark movies!!"

The only positive is that I have an excuse to watch them over or record them again! And according to my sources, I still have time to record a few "Christmas in July" episodes. 

Trying to focus on the positives but I'll miss things like state softball and basketball – even though I was there in person for both!

I should be grateful they followed up today with some new equipment. But as I know from my Facebook account, that means starting over from square ONE.

I think we can get through this together!

Just Blowing Through

 It was a very hot day yesterday, but we knew there was going to be rain coming at some point. Maybe thunderstorms. But what we weren't prepared for was crazy wicked winds with it. I mean it seemed like it was blowing less than 5 minutes. 

But it definitely left its mark on our neighborhood.

First, we see Mr Deck Chair getting blown off the front deck. Jim rescued him! Then, the power goes out – while our pizza in the oven was only half baked. Then, it was complete silence. Very eerie.

I couldn't resist driving around the 'hood. You see that stop sign there? This was what lay ahead of us and our usual way out of our neighborhood circle. Thankfully the other exit wasn't blocked.

Every street was littered with branches of varying sizes. And since, all the trees were falling in different directions, we're wondering if there was a funnel cloud involved or just straight-line winds. Haven't heard anything official, though.

My golf partner's house was missed but this big ass tree was blocking their driveway!

View from the stop sign looking into the 'hood.

Three houses away.

Our only loss.

Snapped right off between our yard and the next door neighbors'.

Damage around the corner.

And some more nearby on Deer Road. So crazy.

Meanwhile, once the power came back on after 2 hours, our cable and internet were still out. After talking with the help desk guy for more than half an hour, we couldn't get it to work. Thankfully, they sent someone out this morning – even though "we don't usually have techs working on Sunday." So glad they could fix it. Our main concern was needing internet to work from home tomorrow (and of course, blog!).

Good neighbor Mike was also promptly on the scene with this chainsaw this morning so we could get things cleaned up before it got too hot.

And trust me, for someone who loves heat, it was sooooo hot!

Jim and I had couples golf league this afternoon and we were roasting! Thankfully, we took a cart so we could create our own breeze once in awhile.

Mark your calendar. I am NOT turning on my electric mattress pad tonight! Hope you all survived the heat and any storm-related fun in your neck of the woods!

Feeling Wired

After staying up late to watch our beloved Vikings choke, we were both tired and wired today. But we slugged through the work day like champs and then saw another step in our kitchen remodel see completion.

We now have nice new outlets – one black and the rest white. Plus, thanks to our handy electrician friend, we have the light over the stove installed. That took some doing but I was a lovely assistant – doing important things like holding flashlights and fetching extension cords while Jim helped with measuring and decision-making and Mike did all the labor. 

It was a team effort. Kidding, Mike. Thanks for doing it all!

Only one big thing left to do (or pay someone to do) and that's the backsplash. We are so close to being "before" and "after" photo ready! Grateful for patience.

After dinner, I popped over to Cindy's to watch another two episodes of Lessons in Chemistry. So good. And now I gotta catch up on The Voice.

Will get to bed at a decent time so I'm not wired tomorrow again! Have a great week!

Power Play

There's a surprising amount of clipart images related to squirrels and electricity.

In reality, this what it looks like when Mr. Squirrel says "Hold my beer and watch this!" Then runs into our transformer.

And then it was lights out for us and the next-door neighbor at 9 a.m. On a day when I'm working from home of course. I managed to use my hot spot from my phone but that was sketchy. Thankfully they restored power in an hour! 

After work, it was golf for me and my neighbor and football stats for hubby on the road at Marathon. For the record, Marigene and I had more fun. The Royals were losing by 40+ last time I checked. 

Hopefully our Friday night "games" for all of us improve!

Sizzlin' Friday in More Ways Than One

Getting up to 90-plus degrees today wasn't even the hottest point of the day. Nope that happened about 7:15 a.m. when I stepped out of the shower. And SIZZLE... the lights went off.

While I didn't look for a carcass, we're guessing it was a squirrel who ventured into the electrical box at the end of our driveway – knocking out power on our side of the street. Sorry, neighbors! Wasn't sure what was wrong until you see the corrected version and realize the top popped right off of one of the coils and was just hanging there.

See what I mean? Thank goodness we have an electrician in the neighborhood to explain things. 

My first thought after lights out was how as I going to open the garage door when I actually had to head to Stevens Point and work today. Second thought was how am I going to curl my hair? Thankfully, we had new – much lighter – garage doors installed a few years ago so it wasn't a big deal to pull the red cord and manually open it.

Also thankfully this morning was going to be a video shoot at the golf course so I could just dress like a golfer and that means.... wear a hat. Yay. Problem solved.

It was fun to tool around SentryWorld and see where things are at, just days before the U.S. Senior Open. 

The merchandise tent is ready with lots of cool clothes and fun things like golf ball-looking bouncy balls. I might have to cave and buy!

Hot humid days means the famous Flower Hole is coming together.

And I got to check out the view on the 18th hole that hubby and I will have when I take him there next Saturday for our anniversary. I'm a pretty awesome wife.

Worked from home the rest of the day then went to the Legion baseball game. The 17U team is hosting their tourney this weekend and Jim had baseball players on both the Rapids and the Plover teams. I suffered through the heat of the first game then came home.

And then it started to downpour. Missed out on that. Yay. Lord knows we need the rain. 

Not sure when they'll resume play at the Legion Tournament but check it out Saturday. It's free entertainment all weekend.

Be careful out there, everyone. And hydrate!!