All is Bleak

Nature turned on us on a late January day and pelted us with snow and then icy rain and then more snow coupled with temperatures in the teens and low twenties. We were in a sparkling wonderland for about eleven days. The crystal coated trees, shrubs, lawns, cars, roofs, and the most unsightly items took on a facade of ice and therefor became beautiful. Big problem! The trees and tree limbs could not bear up under the weight of the ice so they snapped, crackled and popped off onto our roofs, cars and streets, and unfortunately onto our power lines. Thousands of houses and places of business went black. People resorted to candles, generators, flash lights and making temporary moves in with relatives and friends. Some of those mergers were almost fun and brought friends and families closer but in some cases, I understand, the familiarty bred contempt. Jangled nerves and aggravations were intolerable. I think there will be some new members in "Anger Management" classes in the coming months.

Finally, nature took pity on us and cranked up the temperature to a balmy 40 or 50 degrees and melted all of the ice. We will be a long time cleaning up the mess left behind. The insurance companies will be quite busy assessing the damage followed by repairmen repairing the damage.

Driving around town and seeing all of the piles of limbs and debris and seeing the shocking condition of the trees left with scars that will never heal is devestating. Back in 1963 we had the tornado that ripped through the park and destroyed so many trees and it took about twenty years for those replacement trees to grow and become thriving again.

Yesterday, I drove through the park and there was not as much damage as I expected. The terrain looked mighty grim. There were still snow patches and snow piles that were dirty and grimey with winter dirt. The sand traps on the golf course were covered with dirty snow and one lonely man was walking across one of the greens pondering its condition. There were only about three runners, no bikers, no dogs or babies on wheels. As I said above "All is Bleak!"

Hard times always bring out the best in people. Neighbor helping neighbor, family helping family and total strangers helping others. It truely is an ill wind... Men in trucks drove around and gathered up the sawed limbs placed on the curbs for debris pick-up. Some of them were getting fuel for their own fire places and some were getting it to sell to people or perhaps give to someone to help them keep warm in the brutal cold. So many people without power and lucky enough to have a fire place were more than glad to get the wood.

On a positive note-my holly tree was filled with robins yesterday! Could they be the harbingers?