all iced up

Did you know....that for every 1/4 inch of ice on a standard electric line between telephone poles adds 2,500 pounds to the stress placed on the poles. Thus the many snapping poles around here.

this poor little cedar gave up trying to hold all that weight - he used to live in front of our neighbor's house.
i read out loud last night to p.j. and phil (at their request) the first 5 chapters of C.S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew - until i simply could not see anymore, even by the furiously flickering candle. Our power has returned after more than a day. We are being told that we will likely lose it again within a few hours. There is a layer of ice over an inch on everything, causing trees to fall all around us. Thankfully no trees or poles have landed on any buildings, cars or people. Classes have been canceled for the entire week (today was supposed to be the 1st day of the semester). The road out to town is an ice covered death trap, and the grocery stores haven't been able to receive their deliveries since Saturday. We're kinda cold - and i'm going a little bit bonkers - but other than that, we are doing well.