Ice Storm 2011

February continued to earn its title of "Maren's Least Favorite Month of the Year" by starting with a rather large and annoying ice storm.  School was canceled for both boys yesterday in anticipation of the storm.  It snowed a bit and then it started sleeting.  And it didn't stop.  It sleeted pretty much all night.

Snow + Sleet = Nothing Good

The view outside this morning didn't look too threatening, but that was until you actually went outside.  A good 2" of ice covered everything, and the wind blowing off of that ice made it bitterly cold.  It took poor Lance a good hour to clear the driveway and sidewalks.  (It usually takes about 10 minutes.)  Our neighbor is a Sheriff's Deputy, and his car only made it about 6' down the unplowed street.  Lance wisely decided that if a Sheriff's car couldn't make it then our Camry had little chance, either.

Ice day!  With Daddy home!  Very exciting!

It snowed a few more inches during the day.  Here are a few shots, although it's really kinda hard to get a feeling for the storm without actually going outside.  Which I was not willing to do.  Because it's February in Indiana, and if you've ever been to Indiana in February then you would understand.

 

Here's one of our screened in porches.  We usually get a little snow through the screens, but not this much!  The wind was really strong.  That green cup off to the side is Joshie's experiment.  He wanted to see how long it would take to freeze a cup of water.  Turns out, not too long.  Now he doesn't want to go out to get it, and I'm not willing to bend unnecessarily at this point in my pregnancy , so it'll probably be there until May.

Can you see how high the snow is?  Our porches are a good 12-18" above the ground.  Of course, some of that is just snow drift from the wind.  Oh, and notice the screen coming away from the door?  That's courtesy of Cole the Destructor from this fall.  Pesky boy.

 The view from our front porch before Lance cleared it off.  Again.

Another shot showing the depth of the snow.  Like I said, we didn't get that much; what was killer was all the ice.

It was a decent day, all things considered.  I'm just grateful we had electricity!  I have another cold and am hopped up on Mucinex D, which makes me all loopy and kinda nauseous.  I sure was glad to have Lance home to help out.  By the late afternoon we had some boys with serious cabin fever, so we went to Taco Bell for dinner.  Because we like eating at big, fancy restaurants, you know.

Even though the roads are passable enough for us to go out, Spencer still doesn't have school tomorrow.  (One of the positive and negative things about being in the county school system is all the school days!) I think even Spencer's tired of being at home.  But Josh has school, so it'll (kinda) be back to normal.