10 days of night

Wow! I just got back from a lovely trip to 1642!! Last Thursday night (that's 11 days ago) we were victims of that crazy Ice Storm that hit the northeast. Particularly New Hampshire. Particularly the Hampstead area. I live in East Hampstead. Anyway... We woke up in the middle of the night to hear all kinds of crashing and what not. We knew there would be an ice storm, so we figured it was ice falling on the house (and our solarium!) and all would be well in the morning. It all started around 3am for us. We woke up again around 6 and heard this creepy creaking, scratching, eeeeeee eee eeeeee eeeeeeee sound. We arose from our bed to see what was the matter and saw this:

That big icy tree is NOT normally right up against our bedroom window...that is right above our heads. So we decided to look around and investigate. This is what we saw out of our windows and front door:

Our power was also out, which we figured would be a nuisance for the day.

After it was determined that I wouldn't be going in to work because we didn't even open, we decided to go grab some coffee. This turned out to take us over an hour, because there were no places open near us, and the places the next town over were jammed with people, it wouldn't have even been worth it. So, a ride that would normally take us about 20 minutes both ways took us over an hour. It was crazy! And while we were out and about, I took some more pictures:

This ice storm was no joke! Sure, it was pretty, but I couldn't even fit enough pictures on my memory card of all the trees on the lines, trees on people's houses, etc. It was crazy. We had trees down in our yard, across our driveway, oh, and that branch tapping on our window?

That tree REALLY wanted to come in! We were happy when the ice melted and it sprung back up to its natural state.

So even after the ice melted, we still didn't have power. For 10 days. Have you ever been without power for 10 days? Even more than 2 days? Its pretty crazy. I am not complaining, there are many many people who had it much worse than we did. We have a fireplace, community water (so we didn't have to turn off our lines), and we don't have kids to worry about yet. (And the cats really couldn't have cared less). It was just us, camping out in front of the fireplace on our air mattress. I had to get up every hour to put wood on the fire but hey, we were camping. With the exception of not being able to shower at home, I really didn't mind it all that much, but Erm had a tougher time than I did. He is not a camper :) You might say Michelle, you must have gotten so much knitting done in those 10 days! Nope. See, I still worked during that time, and by around 4:15, the sun was already down too much for me to have enough light to knit. What a waste!

Yesterday I got the call from Erm while I was out shopping with my Mom that the power went back on. So exciting! So after a rough drive home (did you hear that we also got a foot of snow yesterday?) I walked into my warm, bright house and watched the Patriots kill Arizona. And my Christmas spirit that I couldn't find? I promptly put up my little fake Christmas tree, wrapped some presents, and baked some candy cane cookies. I think this whole experience was meant to teach some of us what the Christmas spirit is all about!

Off to shovel some snow! Oh, and a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom today!!!! Love you Mom!!!