Winter Weather Outside but Cozy Conditions inside

The weather outside is the worst kind, a near-freezing rain, cold, and blustery. But inside, there's Lavender honey tea in a federal Shape Syracuse China cup, and two homemade butter cookies on a Duchess patterned Tuscan bone china plate, twinkling lights, and cozy clothes! Frightful out, Delightful in!

There is actually some serious weather going on in other parts of Georgia and also elsewhere in the south. Accumulating snow is happening in areas that very rarely gets it.

The neighboring county, Oconee County GA Sheriff's Department put up one of their typically funny posts on Facebook yesterday, in advance of the snow. It's snowing lightly in a few fringe areas of our county now, and friends are putting up pretty photos of their tots outside enjoying the strange white stuff from the sky. Most people around here though, just go bananas. Read the Sheriff's Department post-

Those guys are hilarious.

School the week before the week before Christmas break is crazy. The kids are wild for the Elf on the Shelf, and come into the classroom each day looking for where he might have moved overnight. They really believe the elf is real. One girl told me that her elf at home hasn't shown up yet. Then she innocently said, "Has your elf come to your house yet?" Awww, what's a grownup to say in reply? I said that Santa told me there was a shortage of elves and I said "my" elf could go on to a child's house to watch over a child somewhere. I think she was satisfied with that.

Add to the Christmas excitement, the fact that Georgia was supposed to get some snow today, and the kids were on tenterhooks looking out the window every second. Snow in GA to a kid is as magical as if a unicorn came flying down and delivered a pot of candy to the classroom.

I'm now home and snug inside with my Christmas lights on, knowing I am not moving anywhere until Sunday afternoon!

I plan to have breakfast for dinner, and start reading a book. I don't know which one. There are so many to choose from.

This storm is supposed to cut a wide swathe up and down the coast, so stay safe everyone, and enjoy the winter weather. It'll be here a while, might as well!

Ice storm and no school

Yesterday, Monday February 16, we had a cold rain which turned to a sleety-chilly ice pellets all night. Of course the trees and power lines were immediately blanketed with a thick coat of ice. At 10 PM the power went out.

I had been looking at the Georgia Power Company's outage map and had seen the large outage to my south by a half mile, and the large outage to my east by a quarter mile, so I had no illusions this time that the power would go out. We usually escape here in this lucky location, but not this time, it seemed.

So I dug out the kerosene lamp, trimmed the wick and filled the well. I got the flashlight out, inventoried the priority food in the fridge, and made sure I had all else ready in case. A few minutes later after preparations were complete it did go out. By then it was 10 pm and all I had to do is go to bed.

It was a restless night, with the creaking of overloaded branches hovering low over the roof. At 2:15am a nearby transformer blew. The light was white and bright like a mini-atomic bomb, and the noise, despite being at least a mile off, was very loud.

At that point the power had been out for 4 hours, and I decided that with a nearby transformer gone that it would be many more hours before it came back on. I got up and dumped out sheets and towels from a plastic bin stored in the bedroom closet, and loaded all the prepared food I had in the fridge such as quiche and potato soup etc, plus all the dairy. I tucked it outside the door. Temperatures were hovering just at freezing and the bin being nestled against the wall with the residual interior heat coming out, I knew that the food would not freeze.

At 10:30am the power clicked back on. At one point, 180,000 were without, mainly Atlanta and NE GA, where I am. There are still many without power but with the ice falling off the branches I hope the worst is over. We had no school today due to the fact that one school had no power and many secondary roads were filled with downed power lines and branches, making safe transport of children difficult.

I walked around the yard this morning and took some pictures. Here they are.

It's a blizzard there, it's warm here

I lived for 46 years in New England. I've had my share of blizzards, including the historic Blizzard of '78, which closed not only schools, but all of RI for 5 days.

Not only did the 1978 blizzard drop up to 4 inches of snow per hour for more than a full day, but it also struck during the afternoon after a clear morning. Many were stuck out in the snow in their cars, with 3,000 cars and 500 trucks stranded along Massachusetts’ Route 128. The storm most affected Boston (with more than 27 inches of snow) and the state of Rhode Island. Source and photo source

Blizzard of '78, RI

Today's blizzard, Gray Maine turnpike exit. I lived a mile from here and worked 1/4 mile from here.

Today, right now. It is 52 degrees and sunny. Blue skies. The landlord's grandchildren are romping on the lawn with the baby lamb the other tenant owns. They are feeding the lamb a bottle and playing ball. Life is good.

Comer, GA, Looking north

Even a bit of green grass

Looking south

Beaches, blankies, and bingo! Winter's here

'Tis a cold and blustery day here in north Georgia, but the sun is spectacularly shining and I am warm and clean and dry. It's the little things. Plus, I just ate a scrambled egg wrapped in a soft flour tortilla, one of my new favorite meals.

My bronchitis got a bit worse yesterday but a dear friend came to my rescue last night, showing up before the Dollar Store closed having bought me NyQuil, Cough med, Kleenex, and cough drops. And some Pop Tarts, lol.

NyQuil...what is IN that stuff? It always knocks me out and last night was no exception. Man, it felt good to get a straight 8 hours' rest with no coughing. My muscles were tired and overworked this morning from all that coughing all day yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday, is there anything better on a cold Sunday afternoon than to curl up on the couch with a blankie and a kitty or two, and watching Shrek? Nope, there isn't.

I was going through my old photos a few days ago and came across this one from Naples, FL. Or Venice FL. I really like this, the low perspective, the sand castle in the foreground and the footsteps leading to the two people almost off the edge of the frame in the background. It was taken with a Lomo camera, which I used to love, love, love. Just file this photo under 'things I like for no reason'. Or maybe the reason is I'm thinking about a warm beach right now on this blustery cold day!

Winter

My old home, Gray Maine. I spent almost 30 years in Maine, half of them in Gray. Winters were brutal.

That hump is my Saturn station wagon. The orange blob in the door is my husband, who had to dig the door open and then is inside scrambling to find the keys. We'd been in Florida for two weeks.

Long icicle from a garage roof, Congregational Church in the background. The winter light at dusk is like that, bluish.

Icicles from the cabin I'd lived in for 14 years.

The cabin in spring. In height of winter, there would be massive drifts on either side of the shoveled path

During a snowstorm the wind-driven snow was blown Into my office under the door.

The difference between summer and winter

Summer:

Breakfast: Scrambled egg and grilled blueberry muffin, coffee
Lunch: Homemade hummus sandwich with local tomato, apple juice
Dinner: Homemade calzone, water

Winter:

Breakfast: Coffee, cold by the time I get to drink it
Lunch: Water. No bathroom later either.
Dinner:: Corn flakes. With banana if not too tired.

Plus, there's this: