prairie point

valentine's day

There is still white stuff on the ground this morning but it will be melting fast. We had quite an adventure yesterday. Valentine's Day was one of the best snows I can recall in this area. It started before daybreak and by late morning the accumulation was really thick. I was sipping Earl Grey and finishing up a book while Tricia curled up on the couch with one of her mystery novels, when we heard a loud crash outside.

The top of a small live oak outside the study window had snapped off from the weight of the snow. It lay alongside the side of the house, having missed the window by just inches. It had broken at a "V" about four feet off the ground. The smaller side is still standing but two-thirds of the tree is gone. The live oak had only been about 20 feet tall, but it was a favorite of everyone. There were always birds nesting there and the cats loved to watch them from inside. For now it will have to stay as it is. I am not going to saw it up or haul it off until it clears up a bit.

I went out to investigate and shake the snow off some of the other evergreens before we had some more broken limbs. When I came back inside I found we had lost our electricity. The phone rang and it was one of our neighbors with the same problem. She gave me the number to call to report it. At first I wasn't going to bother but then changed my mind. The woman at the other end kept insisting I was not a customer but eventually took my address anyway. Later I realized she was right - I am not actually a customer. I had switched our service to Green Mountain Energy when deregulation had come in. Of course Green Mountain has no utility trucks or even any service lines. But apparently the way it is suppose to work is that I should call Green Mountain customer service and then they contact the local utility.

At least I did better than my neighbor. She came over later to tell us that she had been answered by a man with a "heavy foreign accent" when she called the problem in. Suspecting the service department had been outsourced off-shore somewhere, she asked where he was located. When he replied that he was not allowed to give out that information, she informed him that she was not going to tell him where she was calling from unless he told her first where he was located. He refused to budge and things were left at that stalemate.

Tricia and I went back to reading our books while we waited for the service to come back on. It is amazing how quiet things can be without the heating system and all the other little electrically-powered noises around the house. About one o'clock we decided to put on our coats again and walk down to Angela's, our favorite little cafe. When we returned two hours later it was still snowing but it was now melting faster than it was coming down. The snow was turning into slush. It made really good snowballs though. We hurried back inside. The electricity was back on and we stayed snug inside for the rest of the day.