interesting weekend

Absaroka · Post by **Absaroka** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 8:05 am

It's been an interesting weekend here in the Northeast. Saturday, 2 days before Halloween we got several inches of snow. Other places got more, a few even getting slightly over two feet. To say the least this is unusual. The leaves on the deciduous trees held onto what was a lot of heavy and wet snow and the result was something of a record in power outages here. It was one of the few times I've felt nervous going outdoors in a storm, every 30 seconds I'd hear another branch break and see a plume of snow as it fell in the distance. Sometimes the "distance" was only about 40 feet away. And to think that in December the few inches my area got would have been a non event.

Yesterday, Sunday, we did yard work, cutting up all the fallen stuff and also putting all the summer stuff away. It seemed like it was finally time. Also went for a couple of nice walks, and I realized that the juxtaposition of autumn New England foliage, fall temperatures, and snow everywhere, melting like it was early springtime, is a once in a lifetime experience that should be treated with appropriate gratitude for the beauty of nature. Okay, so it was a bit like the tempestuous beauty of someone with a borderline personality disorder this weekend...Still an awesome weekend, although I'll admit to being quite happy when power was restored after only a little over 24 hours.

Onto CDing. I was actually wearing my guy clothes, although fleeces and long johns are pretty unisex. After my wife went to sleep about 9 I wondered what to do with my self in the dark by the fire. Reading by an oil lamp gets tiring after awhile. So I got out all the old sewing I'd ignored all summer. Threading a needle by firelight is frustrating.....But I finished all the various repairs to my clothing, with my glasses pushed up on my forehead and another log on the fire. I felt like my own grandmother, which was kind of fun. Sewing was something she used to do a lot of and she was always having my brother and I help her when we stayed with her. Nothing like we write about here of being used as a clothes dummy for dresses, just showing us how to sew.

Of course all the fun I had needs to be tempered with awareness that a lot of folks are going to be out of power for a week and there were at least a half dozen fatalities, far too many of them from people driving in the storm.

Zari

Ralitsa · Post by **Ralitsa** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 10:30 am

It sounds like fun Zari

I've always liked storms and snow storms in particular. Here is WI the weather was beautiful, comparatively warm for this time of year. Sitting by a fire doing anything, while there is a blizzard raging outside is probably the most pleasant thing I can imagine. Right now I'm in my little cabin in the woods, trying to soak up as much of the autumnal forest aura as I can before going out to Pa tomorrow and then to Bulgaria. I have a little fire in the stove, even though it isn't really cold and I don't exactly need it. I'm wearing a dress that I got in Bulgaria that is patterned with black and browns and seems perfect for the occasion. If one can appreciate times like this, then one doesn't care about the guys on TV telling us how bad everything is. Life is good, if you can learn to enjoy what you have when you have it.

Anita · Post by **Anita** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 12:53 pm

I heard that the leaves back there had not even changed colors. That seems really unusual, for late October. Maybe I mis-heard?

There was an ice storm in Ohio in February '62, and we gathered around the fireplace during that power outage. That's the last time I remember doing that, though there must have been other times before I left home in '69. We had four working fireplaces in that particular two-story brick. It dated back to 1814. I chopped and split a lot of wood in my youth.

One of my nephews was born during that week--I don't remember how much trouble they had getting to the hospital.

Carol Ann · Post by **Carol Ann** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:27 pm

Like you sweetheart I am enjoying the change of weather. Plenty of wood cut ready for the wood burning stove oil lamps filled when the snow comes and the electric goes out so more or less Carol is ready.

Right now I am preparing for deer season and my trail cams tells me I have a nice buck coming to visit so all I got to do is get everything packed up and do what I love more then CDing. Hunt deer.

April Rose · Post by **April Rose** » Mon Oct 31, 2011 9:46 pm

In the last six months western New England has had A tornado, a hurricane, an earthquake and now this freak nor'easter snow storm, with more power outages than the hurricane, I'm expecting the frogs any time.

Absaroka · Post by **Absaroka** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:54 am

Anita the leaves go in stages. Some of the maples had turned, others hadn't. Hickories, Tulip trees, and Birch had all turned. Oaks were mostly still green. All in the proper order but a week or so behind schedule.

The damage is far less dramatic in my area than it was with the March noreaster a year and a half ago, which I think eliminated many of the weaklings among the trees. However in this case it is far more widespread so the tree people and electrical crews are spread more thinly.

We had rehearsal last night and everyone was supposed to come in costume, which I did. I got a lot of favorable comments about my attention to detail, but as usual I can't wait for my beard to grow back. Best costume in the opinion of many however was the woman who came as a power company repairman; she was widely considered to be the most imaginary being there.

April with our luck it will be toads, not frogs.

Zari

Stephanie H · Post by **Stephanie H** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 5:50 pm

It has gotten more interesting in the Northeast.
I have an oak tree that if it keeps is leaves until after Thanksgiving, we will be having a mild winter. Just yesterday, the tree was laden with leaves and woooooooo after yesterdays rain, it is almost naked...
Indicated a severe winter....
Hopefully the skiers / snow boarders will be happy

Absaroka · Post by **Absaroka** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:05 pm

I heard a song on the radio today from the 60's by Neil Young with a refrain about look at mother nature on the run.... she's not on the run now, she is definitely letting everyone know who's large and in charge.

Zari