The Ice Storm: As I write this it is 4 degrees here in Dexter and everything is covered in a thin film of the dirty salt that was used to melt the ice on the roads that was left over from the recent ice storm.

And a particularly nasty ice storm it was. For those of you with no experience in the north, ice storms occur when the temperature is just cold enough to start the rain to freeze before it falls. Everything gets soaked by this water that is just a hair's width from turning to ice, then the temperature drops a bit more and it freezes solid wherever it's wet. If this continues for a couple of days, the ice builds up on all the wires and branches and the weight starts causing things to collapse. A huge tree branch collapsed over the road right in front of me -- had I been about fifteen seconds earlier it would have fallen atop my roof, or worse, smashed my windshield.

But generally, the people who suffer most are those whose power lines collapse. There were folks who were out of power for 3 or 4 days. All the area hotels were filled up. People were buying day passes to health club or the YMCA to take a hot shower. Others were looking like the GEICO Caveman. It was a mess of epic proportions.

Luckily, I only lost power long enough for the clocks to reset, but my company was powerless for a full day, and so I got a free day of hooky. If there is an upside to an ice storm, it’s that it makes the world look like it’s made of crystal. So naturally I used my hooky day to take some snaps.

Iced Tree
Weighted Branches
Winter Barn
Frozen Fruit
More Frozen Fruit
Need to Thaw the Paper