Sunday, January 14, 2007

Hazardous beauty


Not here, fortunately for us. This picture is from St. Louis. Ice storms are not in our weather repertoire in Colorado and I'll take 2 or 3 feet of snow any day rather than this thick coating of ice. On the national news this evening they showed an overloaded tree drop its icy coating onto the driveway below; it sounded like a giant chandelier shattering. The homeowners were scooping great shovelsful off the pavement like so much broken glass. As dangerous as this phenomenon is - power lines down, trees broken, streets like skating rinks - it is beautiful, like some fairytale crystal garden. My daughter in Tulsa tells me it was 65 degrees at midnight and the ice storm started there the next morning. My brother-in-law in the desert in California is freezing at 32 degrees. I think Mother Nature is having a hissy fit.

In Colorado, the weekly snow arrived on Friday but only in fluffy flurries. It was a cinch to scoop a few inches off the driveway. But only if you were bundled in more layers than you can easily move around in. The temperature has been hovering around zero for a few days and we find ourselves looking forward to mid-week with a promise of 30 degrees. That's only fair as we dropped 60 degrees in 24 hours to get where we are now. In the meantime, the cupboard doors below the kitchen sink will stay open to keep the water pipes next to the outside wall warm enough so they don't freeze. That's a hazard waiting to happen, and it's not beautiful.



10 comments:

Carol Michel said...

It does not seem to end for you all out west. I heard they even had to cancel an NBA basketball game because the New Orleans/Okla City Hornets could not get out of Oklahome due to the ice. That's almost unheard of.

We are getting quite a bit of rain and there is a risk of some flooding. The temperatures are supposed to start dropping next week, then we'll see what happens.

But what I am most impressed about is the general tidiness under your kitchen sick!

Mary said...

It just doesn't end, does it. I have been through winters like that in the 90's farther north. The ice storms were the worst! It caused our heat pump to catch on fire once... The storm you refer to has been on the national news and I keep my fingers crossed that things settle down and warm up sooner than later.

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

They say the ice is headed our way overnight. I'm hoping that we are far enough north to just get snow. Me hoping for snow! We're off tomorrow anyway. Hope you warm up soon. It certainly has been a strange winter.

LostRoses said...

Carol, Imagine the nerve of the weather canceling a ballgame! The night of our first blizzard, it was announced that the Denver Nuggets would play as usual. I was thinking, right, who's going to see it? The janitors? The NBA finally saw reason and cancelled.

Hope your rain stays reasonable, too.

As for the kitchen sink cabinet, I've heard enough remarks from my son the plumber about having to declutter his customers' cabinets before he can start to work on the pipes. Heaven help us if he had to do that in his mother's house!

Mary, I hope that ice storm calms down soon, too. My daughter in Tulsa ventured outside today to see if her car was encased in ice and if she could get the doors open. I just heard on the news that 10 people in Oklahoma alone have died because of the ice storm. Sad.

Apple, I hope the ice misses you. Think snow! I'm glad you're off work on Monday so you don't have to worry about getting out.

Diana LaMarre said...

When I walked into my kitchen at 5:00 a.m. this morning that is exactly what I saw--the door opened beneath my kitchen sink.I just shook my head thinking DH was being overly cautious.

I just can't see how they can freeze when it's 66 degrees inside the kitchen.

But I guess if your son is a plumber and you do it, it must be worth doing. I will have to stop making fun of my DH.

I think we've gotten about 6 inches of snow and it's still snowing. It was not fun driving to/from work today! I was liking those clean dry January roads.

LostRoses said...

Hi Zoey and Sissy, I forgot to mention that my kitchen sink is under a window, so the pipes are running next an outside wall. Because of that when it's below zero outside the water in those pipes is in danger of freezing, so opening the cabinet doors lets the warm air in the kitchen circulate to those pipes and help keep them warm. I don't have to do this in any of my bathrooms since the plumbing doesn't run next to an outside wall.

Before my son grew up to be a plumber, I had frozen pipes twice. Never since!

Clare and Mike said...

What a beautiful photo. I can appreciate the seriousness of this type of weather though. We have been having such mild weather here in England that to see all the snow and ice is like a different world!

Annie in Austin said...

The photo sure does show an extremely neat area under that sink! I haven't had to do that in this house, since there's an attached garage on the other side of the sink wall, but at our last Austin house the doors stood open every once in awhile... we had a window in the wall over that sink, as you do, LostRoses.
We don't get below zero, but the houses aren't built for cold weather. Mother Nature is having a hissy fit in TX, for sure!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Leann said...

we only have 5 inches of snow on the ground.and Im soooo glad the ice storms stayed out of here.we went thorugh one years ago and it was all I ever wanted to see again.the trees lost their branches and our lights went off.and you couldnt walk out side at all.I had to saty in the house tell it melted.yuck yuck!!!I know what yyo mean about frozen pipes.I lived in a mobile home for a while.we are cold here for a while.but cant complain cause its been nice all winter for a change.God bless you and hope all goes well there.

Boxwood Cottage said...

This is so crazy that you have got all the frost and snow so far while we have got nothing yet. It is a gorgeous photo for sure! Have you heard that people who have lots of snow are selling it on ebay for 150 $ the bucket and they send it to the customers packed in dry ice. People really buy it just for their kiddos to once in a lifetime touch real snow. This is so crazy to pay 150 bucks for something that will melt away lol they must be really desperate. You could earn a fortune with all your snow!