Lights out, no electricity.

The worst has happened. The storm was severe -- the worst since 1997''s great ice storm. The power went out at 8:45am Sunday and to top it off, I was sick with the stomach flu. No heat. No power. No lights. But we did have running water and we had a Coleman camp burner. Edward boiled a camp percolator with water and made some tea and later some bacon and eggs. I just had a nibble of eggs. Not too hungry.

Lots of ice all over. It's about 12-15mm thick. The small tree across from us lost its top. And the big squirrel tree lost a big limb at 3 o'clock the next morning. More may yet come down. The house cooled but we dressed in several layers and had about 24 candles going for light and a wee bit of heat to keep the chill out of the air.

Listening to the portable radio helped pass the time. I spent a lot of time in bed sleeping and resting. I'm much better now (three days later).

Photo and comments posted December 24th.

Edward has blipped ice storm photos, too. His open-access facebook album has more photos.