WINTER WONDERLAND WEDNESDAY

This morning I woke at 4:45 to find the power off. I called in the outage report. I opened the fireplace doors and put more logs on to help heat the house. When I got up for good I built a fire in the free-standing stove upstairs. I took photos early. I am posting them. I measured the snow on the board that has my rain guage and it measured 5". Rain all day yesterday measured over 0.32". I don't know how much rain is in the fluffy snow. My wood fires kept the temperature in the house at 63 degrees with the outside ranging from 34 to 39 today.

I started reading Elmer Kelton's last book OTHER MEN'S HORSES and got into it. I finally decided I was hungry enough to drive to town. I was hesitant because when I get that much snow on my caliche road it can get slick. I had to pop the automatic door opener and raise the garage door by hand. This all electric home is a pain when there is no electricity. I had some snow at noon on the road, but the highway was clear. I bought the blue plate special at Staghorn and drank hot tea.

This morning I got out both of my battery operated radios and neither worked. So while I was in town I stopped at Dollar General and Higginbothams and neither had any battery radios. One of the problems of small towns. When the electricity is off, I don't have internet, radio or TV for news. I can use my car radio.

The power finally came back on at 1:30 so I could flush toilets and get on the computer. I think the problem this morning was the buildup of snow on the wires and the new lightning arrestor connections every 5 poles that is a wire between the power and ground line with a lightning arrestor in the circuit. With this kind of snow the power can flow around the arrestor and short out the system. It took till noon to melt off all of the snow. But there may have been some other problem. It is supposed to get below freezing tonight. Just hope the power stays on.

I ate cold cereal for breakfast. I could have heated water on the stove upstairs but didn't.