Ice Blossoms, Banners, Fire Pits, and More

When we lived in Greensboro, I regularly engaged an excellent printing company to create my banners for conventions, booksignings, etc., but I was overjoyed to discover that an acquaintance of mine, Joe Martin, here in Martinsville, owns What's Your Sign?, a nice little print shop uptown. I always prefer to buy local, so last week, I sent my new banner design to him, and this morning, I picked up the finished product. A great job at a fair price, I must say, so I give top marks to Joe and his shop.

 

Far less pleasing is the weather forecast for the next few days, which calls for substantial snow, sleet, and/or freezing rain, along with bitter cold temperatures. A severe ice storm is the most hazardous of these, not just because of almost certain extended power outages but because falling trees here could be catastrophic. Several trees in the woods around our property could smash the house flat should they fall on it. That possibility was made very clear when a tree came down in the backyard just before we moved in here (see "The One-Man Chainsaw Brigade, February 13, 2023"); it was a big old white ash, and it would have caused massive damage if it hit the house. So, we are hoping and praying to avoid any damaging nastiness from Mother Nature.

All that aside, since we don't have a generator at the moment (I've been pricing them), and our fireplaces are old and not fit for use, an extended power outage can be at the very least supremely unpleasant, and at worst, downright dangerous, particularly since on Monday, the low is supposed to be around zero degrees Fahrenheit, and this house will not hold but so much heat.

 

I'm a little sad, too, because Brugger is in Asheville at an arts & crafts retreat, which she'd paid for many moons ago, and they did not cancel or postpone it due to the coming weather. Given the conditions that will likely linger well past the weekend, she may be stuck out yonder a lot longer than either of us might have expected. It's gonna be a lonely time until she gets back home.

 

I did buy a new fire pit, which I put together this afternoon. If nothing else, I can take it outside the garage and use it to cook. I stocked up on a lot of dry firewood for good measure. It's kind of ironic that I might have to go outside in the bitter cold just to warm up...

 

Anyhoo, here's hoping for a less-than-eventful winter storm.

Let It Snow... (Again)

Literally, a few hours after the last of the snow from the other day melted, bit more fell today—about the same amount we had the first time. This evening, I decided to go walkies around the neighborhood to look at the holiday decorations. There's a pretty good many around, and that makes me happy because I love seeing the neighborhood all done up. It's pretty cold out there, but once I got moving, I felt plenty comfortable.

 

I was most curious to see how our lit-up trees in the woods behind our house looked from other vantage points. There are several areas on the neighboring streets from which I can see them, and they really do look great—kind of like a bunch of fiery creepy crawlies from another dimension.

 

As they should.

 

Our next-door neighbors have a nicely decorated place, and they put some lights of their own around the edge of the woods next to us. So, we have what looks like a convocation of spritely spirits out there, and I heartily approve.

The lights in the woods seen from our driveway; they're to the right of the house in the photo above, just out of the camera's view.

Our next-door neighbors' place and some of their outdoor lights, seen from in the woods.

Since Brugger is in Michigan, I took the opportunity to wrap her Christmas presents today and put them under the tree. I always label them clearly, so that, come Christmas Day, there is no confusion about what belongs to whom.

The Winter Storm Aftermath, Sort Of

For the past few days, the local forecast called for a potentially serious winter storm starting yesterday, and a winter storm we indeed got. Thankfully, for most of us in the area, it stopped short of being terribly serious. The severest issue in our area was vehicle accidents last night as the roads became slippery, and I've heard reports of a handful of power outages. We've kept ours, at least so far; around here, it's typical to weather the worst of a storm without problem, but when it's all over with, then the power goes out. The temperature dropped well below freezing early last night, but it's on the rise this morning, and right now, the snow and ice have become mostly slush.

I went out for my usual morning ramble and took a few pics around Lake Lanier, just down the street.

The Christmas of the Winter Blast

Thanks to the Arctic blast that hit most of the country, yesterday was not only the coldest day of the year, it was one of the coldest days on record here in North Carolina. We woke up on Christmas Eve morning to no electricity; thankfully, it was restored after a couple of hours. Due to excessive power usage, Duke Energy began emergency rolling blackouts over the course of the day; fortunately, after that first morning outage, we didn't get hit with another one.

Today wasn't as cold as yesterday, though one could hardly call it warm. The high temperature didn't even reach freezing. Still, despite us keeping the inside temperature relatively low, Brugger and I stayed reasonably warm by bundling up and smushing with cats. Once we were out of bed and moving about, we set about preparing our Christmas dinner — turkey, roasted carrots, and Brugger's proprietary stuffing. It might have been less elaborate than some of our big family meals from days past, but it was without question one of the best I've had in I don't know how long. Between us, we basically got everything perfect, accompanied by a nice Pinot Noir.

We gave each other a slew of gifts, all of which I loved. Most appreciated was a new addition to the Toho daikaiju figures I've been picking up on occasion. Back in the 1980s, I collected anything and everything Godzilla, kith and kin, but since then, collecting of any sort has fallen by the wayside. However, a year or so ago, I got it into my head I'd like to snag the occasional Godzilla figure — as long as it was relatively inexpensive. (I've got to tell you, it's almost unbelievable how expensive some of the really nice monster figures are.) Anyway, there's a handful of monster sets by Mezco to which I took a shine, and, today, Brugger did her part to help me add to them. Eventually, I'll set up them up in some kind of honest-to-god display, but for now, they're hanging out on the shelves wherever I can find available space.

After our little Christmas celebration, Ms. B. and I packed up and headed to Martinsville to visit with Allison and share some gifts with her. There were a couple of newish geocaches to stop for along the way, which is kind of a rarity these days, so I enjoyed taking advantage of the opportunity to grab them. Now, I do not exaggerate when I say that, gift-wise, Allison's fur baby Cannoli may have made out best of all. What an excited little dude! We brought along the remainder of our Christmas Eve chili for dinner, and after enjoying it, we spent a little time with friend and Fugue Devil: Resurgence publisher Samaire Wynne. Nice company and nice refreshments.

Since Mom and my brother passed away, for me, the whole dynamic of Christmas has changed rather radically. I can't deny a certain sense of melancholy, now that I'm the last of the family I'd known all my life. But I would not change the new traditions that Ms. B. and I have created together for anything in the world. Although my Christmas spirit, such as it as, may not be full of the exuberance I once experienced — even as an adult — the somewhat quieter, more contemplative atmosphere, combined with moments of rip-roaring fun and comedy, suits me as much as anything ever has or could have.

I hope your holiday season is full of warmth, wonderful memories, and lots of love.

And why the hell not? Here's a few shots of the critters that have moved into the house in recent days.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night!

In front of my house about 9:00 p.m. last night. The wall of snow and ice to the right is over two feet high.

To no one's surprise, after 15+ inches of snow, with sleet on top of it, the power went pow! about 10:30 p.m. last night. I had anticipated this very thing, so I had lanterns, flashlights, candles, extra food & drink, blankets, cats, etc. to get through an indoor cold spell. Sure enough, the house turned frigid overnight, but at least the bed stayed warm (bundles of cats help a lot). Yesterday morning, I had made a huge pot of coffee in case the power went out earlier in the day, but then I neglected to make more later. And irony of ironies, I had just thought to do so when electricity vacated the premises last night.

Happily, not long after I got up this morning, electricity returned to Casa de Rodan, and so far has hung around. Hopefully for the long haul. First order of business: brew bucket loads of coffee. The office is closed for the rest of the day, also happily, since getting out on the road is a virtual impossibility, and even if it were possible, highly unsafe. So, barring another power outage, it'll be a good day to make a prodigious amount of progress in Michigan: The Dragon of Lake Superior, my next entry in Elizabeth Massie's Ameri-Scares series.

You people in the affected area stay safe and warm. Things are going to re-freeze tonight.

The Rodan mobile, parked for the duration.

T'ain't Fit for Man Nor Beast....

I may end up snowbound for some time. The big winter storm that came in last night dropped a good 10 inches overnight, and it's still piling up. Right now, it's mostly sleet, but it keeps changing out there. Eventually, this is supposed to turn to freezing rain, which is when the power is most likely to go out. So far, so good here, although there are reports of outages here and there.

There's no way in hell my little car's going to be getting out of my driveway until there's been plowing and considerable melting, which shan't likely be happening in the next 24 hours. I trust the office powers-that-be will have the decency and good sense to just close the office tomorrow. Nohing our company produces is worth risking life, limb, and property for a day at work. I believe it was three years ago that my car got banged up real good by another vehicle that went out of control—and I narrowly avoided getting banged up myself—due to having to drive in conditions where no person with a lick have sense should have been out there. I love my day job, but only up to a point....

It's getting darker and deeper out there even now. The big old flakes are back. I'm stocked up with supplies, but I so hope to keep power through all these. Else it's gonna be a cold, cold time.

About 11:00 a.m. this morning

About ten inches came down overnight, and it's not supposed to stop till tomorrow.

Shiver me beeches!

The Krud Kometh

Seems like every year, at just about this time, I get hit with a krud bug. It makes for a few miserable days, and then it goes away. This year, Brugger got the krud bug first and passed it to me (as well as the boss at the office, who is rightly peeved with Ms. B.). Fortunately, I have katz to help me konquer the krud (kough kough). You katz, you work. You work, katz.

Ice In, Lights Out

The third significant winter storm in as many weeks here in the North Carolina Piedmont, this one resulting in over 400,000 people in the area losing power, over 100,000 of whom have yet to have it restored. It's been many years since I've seen so much damage from ice in this area. My electricity was out from early Friday morning until the middle of the evening last night (Saturday), and I was clearly one of the lucky ones; Duke Power is anticipating it taking until Wednesday or Thursday to get all power in the region back on. In only a few hours, over four inches of heavy slush accumulated at my place, and I knew it was going to be a rough one when I could hear trees cracking and falling with such regularity it sounded like a gunfight outside. I took the picture at left a few seconds after a pair of tall pines — from that bunch in the distance in the center of the photo — came crashing down (unfortunately, the zoom on my phone camera makes the image rather blurry, but you can click on the photos to enlarge them). I did lose one medium-size cedar at the corner of my house, which can be seen in the first photo below. That first day, I was pretty well stuck in my house, since I couldn't have gotten the car out of the driveway if I had wanted to (not that I wanted to). Once I got out yesterday, I got a first-hand look at how much damage there was. In places, there were still more power lines down than remaining up, and several roads were closed because of trees falling across them.

On the positive side, even though I had not intentionally stocked up on supplies before this storm, I had plenty of food, cats for warmth, and martini fixings to keep my spirits up. I rather enjoyed cooking breakfast and making coffee on the grill out on the front porch yesterday morning; it was just like camping out, only not. Since we missed work on Friday, Brugger decided to go into the office yesterday, so I went in as well and got some writing done on my current short story, which fits firmly into Robert W. Chambers' King in Yellow mythos.

Mess with Mother Nature, and she'll whomp you a good one, that's for sure. Stay warm, peoples.

But lord, I hate the onset of Daylight Saving Time....

Those low shrubs to the left aren't low shrubs; those ordinarily stand about 12 feet tall.
The cedar on the corner was uprooted, and I had to take it down completely today.

On Willowlake Road in Guilford County yesterday evening. There weren't many
power lines left intact along this stretch of road.

Another shot along Willowlake Road. That big tree is cracked about halfway up and
leans out over the road. I'd hate to be underneath it when it falls.

It Was a Dark, Snowy, Sleety, Rainy, Windy, Thundery Night

After several days of temperatures that insinuated summer might be in the offing, we get our first winter storm, and it was kind of a doozy. Don't think I've ever experienced snow, sleet, rain, wind, lightning, and thunder simultaneously until tonight. And for some time, I kept hearing the distinctive, repetitive sound of footsteps on my roof. It unnerved the cats, and they all skulked off to hide. I took my camera and went outside for a bit, but couldn't spot any supernatural entities lurking about. Lots of snowflakes with delusions of grandeur, though — some as big as the Cockroach What Ate Cincinnati.

Now, back into the warmth, which I am very thankful to have. I hope whatever's walking around on my roof doesn't poke holes in it.

And a late addendum. I had no sooner typed the above when the power went out. Fortunately, the house didn't get too cold, and the electricity was restored sometime around 1:00 AM. Things are returning to normal.... as they said in Invasion of the Body Snatchers....

What Blizzard?

Lots of precipitation last night — started with snow, then some sleet, for a total of about five inches on the ground. Some predictions called for much direr conditions; I'm kind of glad it wasn't worse, though last night, it was definitely treacherous on the roads. The young'un came in from DC on the late-night train, and late is the word. Scheduled arrival was at midnight; it was closer to 4:00 AM, and thankfully, she was able to get a cab to the house from the station. It's already melting on the roads, though it will re-freeze tonight, for sure.

A little while ago, I went out to clean off the cars and go walkies for a bit, but it's nice to be able to come back inside to a warm house. Hopefully, I can get out tomorrow and maybe get some Christmas shopping done. Mark has procrastinated this year....