Thursday night weather update

 Ways to call in snow, according to my 8-year-old buddy, Little P.:

*Wear your pajamas inside out for a couple of nights.

*Flush ice cubes down the toilet the day before.

*Sleep with a spoon under your bed.

It may be working, because he reported to me this afternoon that he's been doing all of these things, and now the forecast is calling for the possibility of an inch of snow after the ice does its thing. I hope we get a little snow, for his sake. 

In any event, there's a very good chance we could lose power and/or internet access for a couple of days. Not only are we expecting ice and snow, but the nighttime low temperatures are expected to be around 19 degrees (-7.22C) and the highs will struggle to get much above freezing. Whatever cold precipitation we get, won't be going away very fast!

My little family will be just fine. We have gas logs for heat, a gas range for cooking, plenty of food (people and pet), and no need to leave home. If it wasn't so dangerous for the essential workers, I'd even say I'm looking forward to it. Real winter weather is such a rarity in eastern South Carolina! I'm hoping to finally see snow here at our "new" house and "new" neighborhood.

Maybe I should flush some ice down the toilet......or sleep with my pjs inside-out. Little P. is convinced it will work!

Ice storm

Happy Valentine's Day! We're just emerging from the grip of a rare ice storm that descended on the area Tuesday afternoon. We ended up getting over an inch of ice, as well as a couple of inches of snow, and a large part of the state has been in a state of emergency. There are many thousands of people without power still, and crews from neighboring states are working night and day to try and restore electricity. With so many downed trees and power lines, especially in rural areas, it will probably be next week before everything is cleaned up and back to normal.

We were lucky; we only lost power for about 12 hours, and with our gas log fireplace we were able to stay warm and comfortable. The temperatures finally rose a bit above freezing yesterday afternoon and some of the ice melted, although it re-froze overnight. Today is sunny and with temperatures expected to rise into the 50's, we should see the last of the ice. Although it was beautiful, it caused so many problems that I'll be glad to see it gone. I've had enough of winter weather. Hurry up, Spring!

I hope everyone has a nice (and warm!) Valentine's Day!