April Fool!

April first, and there’s SNOW on the ground!  Not much, to be honest, but Saturday it rained all day, then it sleeted, then the snow started.  Within an hour, everything was completely covered.  An early April Fool's joke on us!

In the morning, my poor daffodils and daylilies poked through here and there, and the trees glistened with a thin layer of ice and glowed with a finish coat of snow on their trunks and branches.  The neighbor’s chain link fence, encased in ice, shone in the sunlight.

Usually, by the end of the day all the snow and ice would have melted, but this time, the temperature never got above 35 degrees, so most of it remained.  No big deal, but often, when there is ice on the trees, branches will break.

And some will hit power lines.

Heavy sigh.

So, on top of the unexpected ice and snow, last evening we lost power.  Talk about piling one insult on another - FUN!

At least we’re well practiced.  We used to have frequent outages before our part of the power grid was improved.  I got out the oil lamp and a zillion candles and lit ‘em up.  So we had light and a little heat.  It always gets me how the house will stay relatively warm (around 66 degrees) with just the oil lamps and candles.  And how quiet it is without the TV, refrigerator, and furnace blower running.

The cats appropriated our laps and contributed warmth to the throws we bundled up with.  Nothing to do but wait.

We reported the outage by mobile phone, talked on the phone, talked to each other.

Not a bad way to spend a few hours!