Saturday, December 20, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Ice Storm 2008
It's been a crazy last four days in the Northeast. Thursday evening it started to rain as the temps were dipping into the low 30's. A thin sheet of ice started forming immediately and it only got worse from there. 
At three AM Lisa woke me up and I got out of bed to no power and thus no shower prior to making the trek into Boston for a 6 AM flight to NYC. It was a relatively easy ride in. Lots of downed trees, but I was the only one on the road. My flight was cancelled due to the flight crew being unable to get to the airport (They need Ridgelines). Was switched to a 7 AM flight and made my 9AM meeting in Queens. Lisa started scouring Southern NH for a generator to no avail. I landed back at Logan at 2pm and Lisa calmly notified me that we still were with no power and house temp was dropping. I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some water and cold cuts and then it took me over four hours to get home. 
Downed trees and live wires had roads closed everywhere. So by trial and error I finally found a route home and the house was at 59 Degrees. We have a great wood burning stove but with our open concept home we really need the built in fan to push the air up and into the whole house. With no power this wasn't happening. Friday night the temps dropped into the teens and even with the hottest fire I've ever stoked we lost 5 degrees overnight plus I was up every hour and a half to load more wood. We used up all of our water that Lisa has gathered in our neighborhood pond. In the morning I went back down with three five gallon buckets, but this time I brought the axe so I could chop through the ice that had formed overnight. 
By this time the temp were dropping into the single digits and we were really starting to worry about the pipes freezing. Frustrated by not being able to find a generator I finally remembered that I had bought an adapter for the Ridgeline to convert the power to a grounded plug. Move the truck out of the garage and three extension cords later the wood stove fan in firing on all cylinders. Within three hours we were back over 60 degrees. This did not solve the fact that neither of us had showered since Thursday morning. I was still fresh as a daisy, but Li was a little ripe. We left the PT Cruiser running in the driveway to fire the stove under the watchful eye of our neighbors and took off to Andover for a shower at Karen and Steve's and then a quick meal at Burtons. We got back home at 9 pm, just as the lights flickered back on. All pipes tapped up solid. It was a long 44 hours, but there are still a couple hundred thousand in NH without and I can only imagine how frustrated they must feel. It was great to see how close our neighbors are. Checking in on Lisa while I was away and those with generators offering to take us in. Thanks to all for the calls and well wishes.
At three AM Lisa woke me up and I got out of bed to no power and thus no shower prior to making the trek into Boston for a 6 AM flight to NYC. It was a relatively easy ride in. Lots of downed trees, but I was the only one on the road. My flight was cancelled due to the flight crew being unable to get to the airport (They need Ridgelines). Was switched to a 7 AM flight and made my 9AM meeting in Queens. Lisa started scouring Southern NH for a generator to no avail. I landed back at Logan at 2pm and Lisa calmly notified me that we still were with no power and house temp was dropping. I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some water and cold cuts and then it took me over four hours to get home. 
Downed trees and live wires had roads closed everywhere. So by trial and error I finally found a route home and the house was at 59 Degrees. We have a great wood burning stove but with our open concept home we really need the built in fan to push the air up and into the whole house. With no power this wasn't happening. Friday night the temps dropped into the teens and even with the hottest fire I've ever stoked we lost 5 degrees overnight plus I was up every hour and a half to load more wood. We used up all of our water that Lisa has gathered in our neighborhood pond. In the morning I went back down with three five gallon buckets, but this time I brought the axe so I could chop through the ice that had formed overnight. 
By this time the temp were dropping into the single digits and we were really starting to worry about the pipes freezing. Frustrated by not being able to find a generator I finally remembered that I had bought an adapter for the Ridgeline to convert the power to a grounded plug. Move the truck out of the garage and three extension cords later the wood stove fan in firing on all cylinders. Within three hours we were back over 60 degrees. This did not solve the fact that neither of us had showered since Thursday morning. I was still fresh as a daisy, but Li was a little ripe. We left the PT Cruiser running in the driveway to fire the stove under the watchful eye of our neighbors and took off to Andover for a shower at Karen and Steve's and then a quick meal at Burtons. We got back home at 9 pm, just as the lights flickered back on. All pipes tapped up solid. It was a long 44 hours, but there are still a couple hundred thousand in NH without and I can only imagine how frustrated they must feel. It was great to see how close our neighbors are. Checking in on Lisa while I was away and those with generators offering to take us in. Thanks to all for the calls and well wishes.Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Woodpecker II
As my regular visitors know I have recently upgraded to the age of Digital SLR with a Sony a300. I have been studying, practicing and have started to understand some of the finer points of taking better pictures. I have a long way to go, plus some additional pieces of equipment(please see Amazon Wish List). This weekend as I was practicing I had a visit from a large male Hairy Woodpecker. Very cooperative and I got some nice close ups.
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