Isn't this storm crazy?! I've heard that 1/3 of the U.S. has been affected by this gigantic storm! Ridiculous!
Well, the ice came, and the freezing rain came, and then more of it, and more of it, and more of it came!
And on top of that, last night around 4:30pm, I started smelling gas. Again (this happened last winter too). And we called the gas company, they came out, and sure enough, our heater was leaking! So, they shut it off! In this winter storm! We called our landlord, and he sent the repair man right out (well, he didn't get there until about 8 or 9), which was crazy, because the roads were so bad and the ice was really coming down by then! So, I was really impressed that he came out in the storm anyway! He told us that he doesn't mind it, because he doesn't like leaving anyone with out heat! So nice! Also, his repair service is called "Alpha & Omega" Heating Repair and has a picture of the peace dove and a cross on it, so I'm thinking his religiosity might have something to do with how nice he was! But, even though he most obviously had God on his side, he didn't have the part he needed to fix the heater! He said he'd come back the next day, but you could tell he felt so bad that he was going to have to leave us without heat.
Luckily, we just bought a space heater last Saturday, so we knew we would be OK if our electricity stayed on. Things were pretty dicey last night, the power kept flickering, and we were seeing reports on the news that the power was out all over the city (over 50,000 people lost power in our county alone!). Even though our lights flickered a bunch, and at one point the power actually turned off and came back on really quickly, we never lost power all night long! Hurray for small (or large) miracles!
And on top of ALL OF THAT, our back kitchen door frame/kitchen roof & basement started leaking! This has
never happened before in our house, even though we've had some pretty intense rain storms. We contacted our landlord, and he said it was probably just caused by ice that was forcing water to drain in ways it wouldn't normally drain (like ice covering a gutter or something), and to just keep it as sopped up as we could and that he'd just fix any problems the water caused. So, between some carefully placed buckets & towels, we kept the leaks at bay, and the only real damage was a little discoloration on the ceiling in the kitchen. The leaks stopped around 11 last night.
The weather warmed up a lot really early this morning, and melted some of the ice on the power lines and trees. There's still some ice on them, but not as much as last night. Ben was able to chip the ice off of his car a little easier today, and get to work. The main roads were just fine, and he waited until about 8:30 or 9 before going in, just to be on the safe side.
The heating guy came back this morning, and our heat is now on again and pumping, and no longer poisoning us! :)
Right now, we're starting to get some snow. It's really started coming down something fierce in the last hour or so, and we have a high wind advisory until 6pm tonight. I think we're supposed to have wind gusts between 30-60 mph. So, unless the high winds knock a branch down or a power line, we should be OK! I think we've ridden out the worst of this storm.
Keep your fingers crossed that the wind won't make us lose power! I just got a call from one of my visiting teachees (an older lady in a nursing home), and she said the power went out at their nursing home last night, and they brought them all extra blankets and told them to stay in bed! Crazy! She's OK, though, and the power is back on. Whew!
Hey, it could be worse. We could be in Chicago, where there are 16 inches of snow on the ground and rolling blackouts across the whole city. I'll count my blessings!
