the overwhelming joy of normal
while extraordinary circumstances often challenge us, teach us, enrich us, and make us stronger, the return to “normal” can be ecstatic.
early last week, i first read the ominous forecast: ice accretion. having not used the term “accretion” in daily conversation, i looked it up. sure, i thought, some freezing rain. some icy sidewalks and trees. maybe a brief power outage as transformers overheat, or a random branch falls.
Wednesday, December 10th
on Wednesday, the forecasts changed to start mentioning .5″ to 1.5″ of this accretion. that’s a different story, altogether. but the scope was limited; it suggested pockets of this deep ice layer. just to be on the safe side (as anyone who knows me would attest, i quite often choose to remain on the safe side) i planned precautions for what i assumed could be a 12 hour power outage. the NWS forecaster discussion was adamant that this event was not going to approach the scope of the 1998 ice storm (which left 55,000 houses without power). they were wrong.