Decrepit Old Fool

11:30 pm: It’s 29 degrees f outside, and raining.  Meaning there must be a temperature layer or something close to the ground.  They are expecting 3/4 inches of ice coating everything by morning.  That is a HELL of a lot of tonnage, man.

I covered both cars with tarps.  Looks like that was a good move.

Right now there’s no wind at all, which is good. If it picks up later, we will lose power.  Remains to be seen what closings there will be tomorrow.  I’m off to bed.

Updates:

• 12:30 am – I was just awakened by the characteristic buzzing noise of electrical arcing and the house was shaken by a nearby electrical explosion.  We still have power though. 

• 1:20 am – I was just awakened by a phone call in which I learn that the roof of my son’s 19th century apartment is leaking severely.
• The storm stretches from Chicago to St. Louis, and we are smack in the middle.  I’m headed over to son’s apartment with a large trash can to catch water.
• 2:55 am – The town is in a surreal condition.  Streets are flooded as storm drains are clogged with ice.  Trees and branches down everywhere.  Many areas are dark – no electricity. Snow plows, emergency vehicles, and the occasional idiot are the only vehicles moving.
• Son’s apartment has water pouring in one section over where his breakfast table had been.  Apparently the roof drains are clogged with ice as adjacent apartments are leaking too.  I remind son and roommate not to stand near the site of the leak for extended periods – these are good roof-collapse conditions. 
• Our own area still has electricity.  The rain has subsided a little – what is falling is still turning directly into ice on contact.  A light breeze blows through and the neighborhood explodes with the high-pitched sound of cracking ice and the deeper “Tok!” sound of cracking tree branches.  I am torn between a macho-idiot impulse to drive around looking at stuff, and the more sensible drive to get inside.  I compromise with a picture taken from my driveway. That’s my ‘88 Civic in the foreground:

• 
• 7:30 am – everything is closed.  The air is very still which is a good thing – one really good gust and our whole county would fall over onto power lines.
• 10:03 am – According to Illinois Power, there are 84 people on our power line who are without electricity – so we feel very fortunate to still have lights, heat, and Internet.  And here’s the obligatory close-up of a maple blossom covered with ice.  I took it, shivering, from my front porch, and it is 12 feet from the lens of my Canon Power-Shot S5-IS:

• 2:57 pm – it warmed up to 34 degrees f for a while, but not much melting took place.  Now it’s exactly 32 again and the ice is still in place.  The storm has moved on to New England by now.