So-Called "Monster Storm" Might Knock Out Our Internet

If we don't post on Sunday, it's because we will have no Internet. I mean, we MIGHT have Internet, and then, we will post, but YOU might not have Internet, if you live in the northern 75% of the US, so then you couldn't read it anyway.

Bill is doing better every day. He even drove the car yesterday, and helped me in the yard a little today, getting ready for the huge storm. He is eating normal food, off the Ensure, and his biggest problem now is unending pain and cramps in his surgical area, liver area, which pain is still within the normal range. No fever.

Looking at a map just now, a radar picture of this storm: it looks like a gigantic hurricane, with its eye over Des Moines right now. It is spinning counter-clockwise, and the top half is snow, bottom half rain. It goes from Alabama in the south up into Canada. That's how BIG it is!

Here, all the reports tell us that Saturday night, we get tons of rain, then it quickly freezes into nice black ice over everything, then turns into snow, then into a white-out blizzard with hurricane force winds, cracking trees, downed power/phone/internet lines and not letting up till the end of Tuesday.

Well, we had to get ready in case that happens, but I sort of don't believe it will be that bad.

We have an Arctic (good to -60 degrees) (HAHA) (why is that funny, Beth?) tent set up in the house--IN the house--in front of the propane fireplace in case power goes out. We have camping supplies, water, canned food, matches, candles, and a grill out back and tons of charcoal for, eg, making coffee. If the propane for the fireplace runs out, both cars are full of gas, so we and the 4 dogs will move into the cars which sounds like actual fun to me. I love drama!

My favorite thing about ice storms is trees cracking. Unless they're anywhere near my house or the houses of people we like. People we don't like, who cares. JUST KIDDING! But you stand at the door and listen, and it sounds like lots of firecrackers going off, small explosions that crack and echo, as trees just kind of explode, when the ice makes them too heavy, then the 50 mph wind gets involved.

They're saying MINUS-20-DEGREE wind chill factor here, once the wind starts. Which makes a pretty GOOD Wine Chill factor, but a very BAD Windshield Factor, if you have to scrape the ice.

So, as I was saying, Bill is doing better, and if we don't write till next week, it means we lost internet. You can see why we might.

Love from the Tree-Poppin' Wine-Chillin' Arctic-Tentin' Cowpokes!