Cletus Was Missing For An Hour

Yesterday around 12:15pm, and 11° outside, I had the fear unlike any other I have experienced hit me. It was my fault that Cletus had escaped. I will have to explain the latest AT&T story later but it was because of that story I was going outside in freezing weather so I could move their box with the spliced wires out from the fallen tree branches and tree on the berm. The fallen tree on the berm was from the ice/snow storm a couple of weeks ago.

I thought I had all the clothes I needed to stay warm in 11° weather with a chill factor around 0°. But I didn't and that led to the problem for my mistake. 

Garage door is open. I walked back inside to get my ski gloves to replace the ones I was wearing due to my hands freezing within minutes.

As I walked into the mudroom from the garage, I closed the door behind me, evidently it not close all the way for whatever reason. I am on the other side of the house, getting those gloves from a closet and notice the electrical power cord is pulled out of my router and is laying on the floor.

Watson likes to sleep under my desk sometimes so the wire must have gotten tangled in his foot and was pulled out when he got up from under the desk. Like any hound or dog, if he felt any resistance or that cord on his foot ... he would have ran to break free, thus pulling out the electrical cord. 

I plug the cord back in the router, grab my gloves and head back outside the way I came, through the kitchen. Just as I get to the middle of the kitchen I see a wide open door in the mudroom that leads to the garage and one of the garage doors are open. Instant panic and adrenaline overwhelmed me. 

It's COLD !!!!

I said in my last post that I would take a photo of this area of the yard after the night and day of rain that was in the forecast this past weekend, before dropping to single digit temperatures for our highs. So there it is ... higher ground, snow was gone and hard as a rock. It was 7° when I took this photo on Monday morning with a "feels like" -11. That was yesterday morning, not today.

So I am sitting here the morning to start this post around 8:40am CT, with a hot cup of coffee, 5° outside and a "feels like" -5°. This is the last day of single temps before it slightly warms up tomorrow with a high of 15° and moves back up to our normal winter averages of 30/40s ... it will feel like a heat wave.

Rain Before Single Digit Weather ???

It has gradually warmed up this week and it is forecasted to rain tonight after midnight. Then almost a 100% chance of rain on Saturday. Does that mean all the snow that is covering everybody's yards will disappear? Then to top that off, the paper this morning was warning everybody of "dangerously cold" weather that will start when I get up on Sunday with windchill's below 0°. That's a drastic movement in weather after a day of rain. Sounds like fun but those kind of changes in weather are typical of Indiana weather.

Snow & Ice Removal

Two things I wanted to get done on Saturday morning was shoveling the snow off the ice on the front porch, sidewalk and driveway. I would let the sun do its own work on what was left on the driveway because as you can see, I had no trouble before cleaning it getting in and out with my car. The snow was wet and heavy. The other day the snow I shoveled on the porch and sidewalk was light as powder.

The Snow Never Stopped

When I left you Friday morning it was still snowing but only later did it turn into larger flakes and and a heavier fall. It looked like were were going to get the amount of snow predicted for today. It was supposed to stop around 5pm-7pm.

Thursday Afternoon - Power On !!

After five great hours on Tuesday where we had power for some reason, we woke up Wednesday morning to 11° outside and 51° inside. The old sleeping bag I found worked great since it is rated for cold temperatures and I had a good night of sleep. That bag was not in with my camping stuff but I found later in a closet. I must have put it in there when I moved in.

The Snow & Ice Storm Hit Us Hard

About 10 minutes after I posted this today, my power went out again and it is still out three hours later. They now have a standard text that says everybody will have their power restored by Friday, although many of those people will have it before then. 

For the first time in a long time the storms in the forecast included us where there was hope it would stay south of the Ohio River and North of I-64. It did not and it was worse than I expected. This photo was taken at 8:38pm Sunday night ... we had lost all power eight minutes earlier. It turned out to be an experience and a new list of things I need the next time it happens.