Friday, December 19, 2008

Ft Wayne

Ft Wayne

click to enlarge

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch feet ice cold in snow,

stood puzzling, and puzzling, how could it be so? It came
without ribbons. It came without tags. it came without
packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled
'till his puzzler was sore. Then, the Grinch thought of
something he hadn't before.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.

What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

Dr. Seuss

This morning we woke to about a 1/2 inch of ice, which
made it iffy about going to work, although it's only
9 blocks away. Also, since I use a scanner and computer
it meant since we had power surges before I left the house,
well, you know the rest. Around 9am, all power in our
town and surrounding area went out, due to ice build up,
power lines down, trees and branches falling everywhere.

We've been lucky, since it only took 6 1/2 hrs to
get our power back, and not days.

Cracking, popping and eerie fog only a few minutes earlier.
Our intention was to snap some great and interesting photos.
Er, but slipping on ice, or getting hit by a falling branch,
or perhaps a falling electrical line, kept us
indoors past the opportunity for some great shots.

click both photos to see what we saw

Although we had plenty of water, we needed some batteries
and many more candles for the coming darkness.

The beauty of living out here in the midwest, is
seeing things like this vehicle.

A shout out to "N" for being the only one to
imagine what we did when we saw this truck
and it's hand drawn sign, not to mention the image
of the church on the R side of the truck ; (
Eerie and creative and these two shots
were all we were able to take before he turned.

Hope ya'll are safe and warm where you live ; )

22 comments:

tut-tut said...

Not fun at all. We used to live in western Massachusetts, and we saw pictures of our town, every single tree in which was damaged by ice last week. Go here to see some jaw-dropping photos of it:

http://commonweeder.blogspot.com/2008/12/heaths-ice-storm.html

Colette Amelia said...

so far no trauma just calm clear skies and temperatures forcasted to go to -37!

looks like the artist will have a lot of materials to be carving!

stay warm and safe! And have a cuppa coffee!

ratatouille's archives said...

Hi! Coffee Messiah,
The two wintry pictures are beautiful, but, I also hope you(and your family and friends) are safe! and warm where you live too!....
Tks,
dcd ;-)

ps I really like the excerpt from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" Guess I will watch it this evening.haha!

Joanne said...

8 to 14 inches of snow falling here in New England, wrapping up late tonight. With more expected again on Sunday. Tis the season!

Megan said...

Very beautiful, but oh so cold!

I know a guy who makes giant tikis out of wood. He doesn't use a chainsaw though. They are pretty neat looking.

R.L. Bourges said...

With the downed trees, the chainsaw artist must have found quite a bit of inspiration - if not, he could always help the Grinch carve the beast in artistic, reindeer shapes :-)

Can't tell you how much the photos reminded me of Québec and the farmlands where I lived (not to mention the Great Power Outage when the pylones came tumbling down.)

May you and yours stay safe, warm, and well lit.

Oh! Christmas present here:

http://www.chainsawartist.com/

Squirrel said...

shouldn't that be "chain saw artiste?"

the first shot looks SO BEAUTIFUL until you see the snapped tree limb.

our #!@#^#*^@! weather people are predicting rain and very low temps --on top of the snow we just had.
they predict ice , but they often get it wrong... here's hoping. All of the ice storms have been close, but missed us. Ice is beautiful, but only if you can stay inside.

Squirrel said...

Do you drink cocoa? if so do you have a special type you use/ prep method?

Merle Sneed said...

One of the best things (and they are few) about living here in Hooterville is that we don't get natural disasters or even major nature-induces inconveniences.

It looks very cold in your parts.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Coffee, have you ever experienced six weeks of forty below temperatures. I did in Edmonton!

Walking to work was exciting!

Wishing you and yours all the best for Xmas and I hope that the New Year brings big changes for America.

Peace.

N said...

the pics look so good :)....im guessing all that snow and chill isnt that great when u have live through it though. hope u have a warm and merry christmas.

and that truck brings back all my scary movie memories !!!! lonely road, red truck, ominous words on it..... perfect for movies like scream,etc.

Coffee Messiah said...

t & t: It's an amazing experience, beautiful in one sense, and very dangerous in another.

colette: Brrr, although Sun evening into monday and tues we may be dipping below 0 also ; (

dcd: Thanks and you too.

joanne: I lov the snow and so far, although always hearing about the great storm of '78, we have yet to be snowed in. Snow beats ice anytime though ; )

megan: Seems like in the '70s it was bigger than it is now. There was a guy in Berkeley who did pretty good busy-ness back then.

rlb: Thanks and for the link. Pretty nice work they do.

squirrel: On my long commute (9 blocks) limbs and ice were everywhere as was fog. It was an eerie sight, as were a few power lines that were already down. We're getting some below zero weather sun into tues as of now, supposedly. There saying warning already, so sounds like a for sure thing.

As to the cocoa, we've been trying a few new brands and will do a post next year on that and tea too ; )

merle: it is ; ( I don't mind snow and all, but the frigid cold, is too much 4 this old bag of bones.

david: Yikes, no and it would certainly be an experience. So many around the world do experience it though, I often times wonder why I'm bemoaning a few days of it.

My best to you and yours also and yes, lets hope something comes of our new administration, although one of his latest choices for the inauguration is baffling ; ( Hope it's not going to be a trend.

n: Ya know, the way the sign on the truck was written, we did not think what most people here thought, we thought of those creepy movies. Especially when I saw the driver, 'cause he fit to the "T"! ; (

Kurt said...

My puzzler is sore.

I guess being a chainsaw artist does NOT make you a sign-painting artist.

edward said...

that bridge looks sharp and slick and slippy.
it looks like a bridgesicle.

Anonymous said...

Those pictures - that's what I call winter! Like I recall from north AR. There's never anything like that around here in north TX. A little freezing fog the other day almost threw the whole region into a panic.:-D (That was Teus. This weekend it's @70!)
I trust you made it through, though. Yes?
I especially like the top pic with the frozen bridges - well, frozen everything, really.
And you can add one more to list that would have been afraid, very afraid, to look under the camper of that truck.

Coffee Messiah said...

kurt: Yeah, not so good ; (

edward: I like that, bridgesicle ; )

decker: The next few days will be colder, much colder and do hope our power stays on, otherwise, we're in trouble ; (

It was weird seeing that guy in the truck and lucky we caught a few shots.

Crazy Ass Beastard said...

I feel for you man. I hope that your electric juice keeps flowing. So far we have escaped any of the white stuff 'round here. Temps mild.

Anil P said...

With trees coming down the birds will lost their perches. Do some species stay back where you are or do they all migrate to warmer climes?

N said...

:D funny how our imagination took that turn instead of any reasonably 'normal' explanation....

Coffee Messiah said...

simstone: The bay area used to be so nice this time of year, except for some rain once in awhile.

anil p: We thought the same thing. Some birds in large formations seem to be flying south, but others linger here, despite it all. They must hide somewhere though.

n: Once you move to an area like this from a big city, it all looks strange and a bit on the You better be wary side ; )

IU_hoosier20 said...

hi, im stephen... im really liking ur blog... I too was in Fort Wayne during that nightmare Ice-Storm...

Ashton Rigg said...

Alas, I was dreaming of a white Christmas. Instead I was humid and sweating most un-lady-like moving in semi-circles to follow the pedistal fan.

Excellent Blogging :D!
Hope your Silly Season was wonderful x