Another storm?

I have to say - it sure is exciting (weather-wise) to live in the northeast of this country. I just caught the news and our area is expected to get another 9 inches of the white stuff again tonight/tomorrow. We've barely recovered from the ice storm we got right before Christmas. The kids ended up with 3 weeks (and a day) off from school! That should be fun for them come summer - they have to make up 8 days already and it's not even January.

God, I hope we don't lose power again with this storm. Believe me - we were not in bad shape during the ice storm compared to others. We only lost power from Thursday through Sunday. Other people lost it for 12, 14 days (and I'm pretty sure that others *still* don't have it back yet). We lost everything in the fridge and freezer, but I had been purging them both so that we'd be ready for all the Christmas cooking, so the loss wasn't huge. We were warm - we have a wood stove. We had hot water. We could cook using the gas grille and the top of the stove. We had plenty of candles and kerosene lamps. I put so many candles on the coffee table in the living room that it looked like we had a bonfire in the middle of the room. We ate like kings - eating everything in the fridge & freezer before it melted! We had a steady stream of company - word gets around when you have heat & hot water! I still haven't caught up on the laundry after every neighbor and relative came over to shower . . .

Our yard is still a mess - every tree got "topped" by the ice, and unfortunately, half of those tops are hanging by a thread. Dangling over the pool; the roof of the house. All of our beautiful birches are still completely bent over and touching the ground (and unfortunately - two of them are hanging over my neighbor's roof - just noticed it yesterday). I got an estimate from a tree guy in the area, and he gave me a great price. I just have to figure out how to come up with the cash for it. And pray that those toppers don't fly during this next storm!

Stay warm out there!