Good news and bad news...
So, ice storm 2. Bad shit.
It didn't look like much at first. A cold rain, but just that, to the naked eye. Until the sun went down, the temperatures dropped, and the ice froze.
CO was out of town at a manditory workshop, and stuck there for four days. That left me in charge. So, as instructed, I told everyone that we'd be closed Wednesday, and maybe Thursday, depending on what the county decided to do - we generally follow their lead on closures. We put up signs, posted to FB, told patrons that were at the library, and all the rest of what needed doing.
Wednesday around 9 am, the power went out. Woke me up, but I had a plan, so I headed out to the living room to cuddle with my black kitties (who aren't allowed to come into the bedroom because they pick on Lily) and wait for the power to come back up. Usually that doesn't take long - one advantage to having the hospital practically in my backyard is that the power crews are VERY attentive to getting the power up in my neighborhood!
Two hours later, and several degrees cooler, I decided that it was time to put my contingency plan into action. My master suite is an addition to my house, which means that it's a) built to modern, sturdy construction standards, and b) has the best insulation. It's always the warmest room in winter, the coolest in summer. It also has an attached master bath, which means that as long as there's water coming in the house, I wouldn't have to leave the suite. I started hauling stuff in there to hole up for the duration. I already had supplies from the last ice storm, so I knew that wasn't going to be a problem. It was just a matter of huddling up and conserving heat as best I could. I brought in plenty of blankets, all the cats, and just curled up in bed with my Nook to read and nap.
Then the noise started. The sounds of limbs hitting my roof. Small ones, at first, then bigger and bigger. The noise was almost constant, crash-crash-crash-BOOM, again and again. Most of the day and through the night. It was decided that the library, quite sensibly, would NOT be opening Thursday, as we didn't want anyone getting killed by falling trees or ice on the roads trying to get to the library.
With CO being out of town, I called the others to let them know. And called Mom, after I looked out the window after a particularly large impact and asked her what her experience was with making home insurance claims, as there was a fairly large limb going THROUGH the eaves of my roof, and one corner of the roof was no longer straight, but bent. :P
By Thursday afternoon, the booming had stopped, and all that was to be heard were the sounds of ice falling off the trees and onto the roof or the ground. Still a little nervous-making but not nearly as bad.
Then I called the insurance company, because if this was happening at my house, it was probably happening all over the state. After all, the governor had already declared us a disaster area before the temperatures even hit freezing. I got through to a very nice, helpful lady who got me set up with a claim adjuster and provided a direct number for the company's disaster relief center in case I needed it.
Late Thursday afternoon, I decided that it was probably safe to go out (plus I was totally stir-crazy and freezing my ass off) and headed for the library to see if there was power there, and internet. Answer: yes,there was. But the server had been messed up, so I got the ball rolling on getting that fixed by calling our tech support company.
Friday, we reopened - and most of the staff was damn glad, as most of us, including me, had no power. Let me tell you, I love modern insulation, as the temperature was only in the low 50s in my room, and there was still a tiny bit of warmth in the water from the hot water heater - there was no way I was going to work as dirty as I was after not showering for 3 days! CO managed to get done with her workshop and came back, and the library had a quiet day since the public computers didn't get back online until about noon and most people didn't realize the library would be open.
I wound up staying late getting stuff caught up, went home to feed the cats, and decided that I wasn't going to spend another night freezing my ass off - I was going to go to Boro, grab a chainsaw and a space heater, and get a hot dinner. As I was heading out, I saw a power crew at the intersection right down the road from my house. Yay! By the time I got home, power was back up, heat was on, and I was the owner of the last chainsaw that the Walmart in Boro had in stock.
So of course, as I'm researching chainsaw safety and maintenance, somebody knocks on my door and offers to clear the debris out of the yard. And I, being the practical (and somewhat lazy, when it comes to physical effort) person that I am, happily accepted, as it would get the job done much quicker and more efficiently than I could do it by myself, especially since I would need to go buy safety equipment before I could get started. And while I was taking pictures of the damage and the crew cleaning it up, somebody came up offering to take down the trees that had dropped all those branches the other guys were cleaning up, so come Monday, I'll have the insurance adjuster there to assess the damage and the tree crew there to take down the dangerous trees before somebody gets killed... like me or my cats. :P
In the meantime, I once again have a yard that looks like a yard. Now I just have to screw up my courage to clean out my fridge, and talk to the adjuster about how my computer now refuses to power up, much less boot, and what can I do about getting a check cut for that...
Insurance is my friend. I just have to keep reminding myself of that. And it could have been so VERY much worse.
It didn't look like much at first. A cold rain, but just that, to the naked eye. Until the sun went down, the temperatures dropped, and the ice froze.
CO was out of town at a manditory workshop, and stuck there for four days. That left me in charge. So, as instructed, I told everyone that we'd be closed Wednesday, and maybe Thursday, depending on what the county decided to do - we generally follow their lead on closures. We put up signs, posted to FB, told patrons that were at the library, and all the rest of what needed doing.
Wednesday around 9 am, the power went out. Woke me up, but I had a plan, so I headed out to the living room to cuddle with my black kitties (who aren't allowed to come into the bedroom because they pick on Lily) and wait for the power to come back up. Usually that doesn't take long - one advantage to having the hospital practically in my backyard is that the power crews are VERY attentive to getting the power up in my neighborhood!
Two hours later, and several degrees cooler, I decided that it was time to put my contingency plan into action. My master suite is an addition to my house, which means that it's a) built to modern, sturdy construction standards, and b) has the best insulation. It's always the warmest room in winter, the coolest in summer. It also has an attached master bath, which means that as long as there's water coming in the house, I wouldn't have to leave the suite. I started hauling stuff in there to hole up for the duration. I already had supplies from the last ice storm, so I knew that wasn't going to be a problem. It was just a matter of huddling up and conserving heat as best I could. I brought in plenty of blankets, all the cats, and just curled up in bed with my Nook to read and nap.
Then the noise started. The sounds of limbs hitting my roof. Small ones, at first, then bigger and bigger. The noise was almost constant, crash-crash-crash-BOOM, again and again. Most of the day and through the night. It was decided that the library, quite sensibly, would NOT be opening Thursday, as we didn't want anyone getting killed by falling trees or ice on the roads trying to get to the library.
With CO being out of town, I called the others to let them know. And called Mom, after I looked out the window after a particularly large impact and asked her what her experience was with making home insurance claims, as there was a fairly large limb going THROUGH the eaves of my roof, and one corner of the roof was no longer straight, but bent. :P
By Thursday afternoon, the booming had stopped, and all that was to be heard were the sounds of ice falling off the trees and onto the roof or the ground. Still a little nervous-making but not nearly as bad.
Then I called the insurance company, because if this was happening at my house, it was probably happening all over the state. After all, the governor had already declared us a disaster area before the temperatures even hit freezing. I got through to a very nice, helpful lady who got me set up with a claim adjuster and provided a direct number for the company's disaster relief center in case I needed it.
Late Thursday afternoon, I decided that it was probably safe to go out (plus I was totally stir-crazy and freezing my ass off) and headed for the library to see if there was power there, and internet. Answer: yes,there was. But the server had been messed up, so I got the ball rolling on getting that fixed by calling our tech support company.
Friday, we reopened - and most of the staff was damn glad, as most of us, including me, had no power. Let me tell you, I love modern insulation, as the temperature was only in the low 50s in my room, and there was still a tiny bit of warmth in the water from the hot water heater - there was no way I was going to work as dirty as I was after not showering for 3 days! CO managed to get done with her workshop and came back, and the library had a quiet day since the public computers didn't get back online until about noon and most people didn't realize the library would be open.
I wound up staying late getting stuff caught up, went home to feed the cats, and decided that I wasn't going to spend another night freezing my ass off - I was going to go to Boro, grab a chainsaw and a space heater, and get a hot dinner. As I was heading out, I saw a power crew at the intersection right down the road from my house. Yay! By the time I got home, power was back up, heat was on, and I was the owner of the last chainsaw that the Walmart in Boro had in stock.
So of course, as I'm researching chainsaw safety and maintenance, somebody knocks on my door and offers to clear the debris out of the yard. And I, being the practical (and somewhat lazy, when it comes to physical effort) person that I am, happily accepted, as it would get the job done much quicker and more efficiently than I could do it by myself, especially since I would need to go buy safety equipment before I could get started. And while I was taking pictures of the damage and the crew cleaning it up, somebody came up offering to take down the trees that had dropped all those branches the other guys were cleaning up, so come Monday, I'll have the insurance adjuster there to assess the damage and the tree crew there to take down the dangerous trees before somebody gets killed... like me or my cats. :P
In the meantime, I once again have a yard that looks like a yard. Now I just have to screw up my courage to clean out my fridge, and talk to the adjuster about how my computer now refuses to power up, much less boot, and what can I do about getting a check cut for that...
Insurance is my friend. I just have to keep reminding myself of that. And it could have been so VERY much worse.