Wind Power

Here's a short list of things I've seen in the past week, in approximate order:

• Tornados of mulch, accompanied by the sensation of being inside a very dusty hairdryer


• Traffic lights bouncing like popcorn


• Our patio furniture sliding around the deck


• Trees split in half down the middle, trees broken off at the trunk, trees uprooted from the ground, trees covering houses, tree limbs everywhere


• Lots of houses with siding and roof shingles ripped off


• Broken power lines, draped across streets and lawns like bedraggled party streamers


• A couple of street signs bent over and/or uprooted from the ground


• Gas stations with cars lined up around the corner


• Mounds of tree limbs piled up along every street, waiting for the city trucks to come turn them into mulch

The official weather report and some photos can be found here, and there are plenty of other photos here.

Some basic stats about the effects that the windstorm had on Cincinnati:

• By Sunday night, 90% of the greater Cincinnati area had lost power-- More than 700,000 homes and businesses.


• By Monday night, that number stood at around 580,000 homes and businesses without power.


• On Wednesday night, more than 15% of the homes and businesses in the Cincinnati area still did not have power.


• All of the Cincinnati Public Schools were closed for at least 3 days. Some schools were closed for the entire week.


• As of Friday afternoon, 5 days after the storm hit, 125,000 homes were still without power.

Whoever thought we'd spend a week recovering from Hurricane Ike?

Hurricane Ike

We got pounded by the remnants of Hurricane Ike yesterday. We had virtually no rain, but a furious windstorm all afternoon, which brought down trees all over the city. As of last night, 90% of the greater Cincinnati area was without power, and the statistics haven't improved radically today.

Frankly, I'm not sure why Cincinnati isn't being mentioned on the national news, except that it may be just too hard to explain how a hurricane can do so much damage in the Midwest.

Obviously, we're pretty happy to have power back on at our house, but there are still plenty of other areas that are waiting. (We lost power from 2:30pm yesterday afternoon until about 3:30pm today.)


Digression...


In Hamilton Country, the "tornado" sirens are activated anytime there's a Severe Thunderstorm Warning in our area. The sirens are also activated if the conditions are upgraded to a Tornado Watch or a Tornado Warning.

Now you might be asking, "How do you figure out what the sirens mean?"

Well, we turn on the TV (assuming that we still have electricity) to see what the weathermen are saying.

You might say, "But if it's a Tornado Warning, that means that you should be heading for the basement. IMMEDIATELY."

That's a very valid point, and I have no good answer to that, except to say that it would be extremely silly and pointless to run to the basement every time the siren goes off.

You might suggest, "Maybe they should only activate the 'tornado' sirens if there's actually a Tornado Warning."

Another very valid point. Hamilton County says that the sirens are meant to act as a warning that conditions aren't safe outside and people need to seek shelter indoors.

Here's my thought: If there's thunder and lightening and a torrential downpour outside, I would hope that people would have enough sense to come in out of the rain. (And if not, they're probably good candidates for a Darwin Award, and who are we to interfere with their destiny?)


Now returning to the main topic...


So yesterday, we had a swirling, howling windstorm. Gusts were frequently in the 60-80 mph range. I was outside for maybe 20 minutes of it, and let me just tell you that the flying dust and debris alone were potentially blinding, literally, not to mention the risks of being injured or killed by falling trees and limbs.

The storm went on for five hours, and the emergency sirens were never activated.

Snow Geek

My husband is a geek. (That's not an insult-- He's proud of it!)

He's on the phone with his dad right now. They're curmudgeoning together about the stupidity of the news broadcasts. (It's how they bond.)

Changing the subject, he says, "Have you noticed how every surface is covered with a perfect, three-dimensional parabolic arc or dome? I just think that's really cool!"

When we first woke up this morning, he called me over to the kitchen window to point out the dome of snow on the post-light in front of our garage.

SNOWMAGGEDON!

Channel 5 News is using "SNOWMAGGEDON" as a sub-title for their news stories. I kid you not.

We're under a Level 3 snow emergency, and the news is devoting their entire broadcast to providing helpful tips and critical information such as:

• Police can give you a ticket if you are out driving without a really good reason, so stay home if at all possible. Unless you need to get groceries, or you want to take your kids sledding, or you're planning to run some errands today...


• If you are going to drive somewhere, file a travel plan with somebody so that they can tell authorities where to start digging. Pack an emergency kit in your car, including an ice scraper, a blanket, a bottle of water, a cell phone, a brightly colored rag to tie to your antenna, several bags of sand, road flares, an avalanche beacon, a month's supply of food, water-proof matches & firewood, self-contained breathing apparatus, and a team of sled dogs. If you get stranded, stay in your car, because you could get disoriented by the vast expanse of white and wind up walking in circles for hours, until you eventually freeze to death.


• Road crews are not using salt on the roadways, because it wouldn't be effective for these types of conditions. (i.e. It would be pointless to create a big slushy mess on top of packed snow. They know what they're doing, so please don't call and complain.)


• Everything in the greater Cincinnati area is closed, but just in case you have any doubts, we're going to list every school, business, store, charity, and government agency, one by one, across the bottom of your screen.


• [Repetition of the above, ad nauseum]

The White Death

We're having a blizzard! Or, more technically, Cincinnati is under a Blizzard Warning until tomorrow afternoon.

When we woke up this morning, we found just a light dusting of snow had fallen overnight. We haven't had any really heavy snow showers, but it's been coming down in a steady flurry all day long, so we now have about 6 inches in our back yard, with plenty more on the way. The weathermen are breathlessly predicting 11-15 inches, which is a huge amount of snow for a city so close to the Mason-Dixon line.

Bella has been loving every minute of it. One of her favorite toys is a open-mesh ball made from a foam-rubber material, like Crocs. When she takes it outside, it fills up with snow, and then she brings it back inside and scatters snow all over the place. (I don't mind snow on the floor much-- It's an improvement over her normal habit of bringing sticks into the house and turning them into mulch all over the carpet.)



She's clearly one of the few souls who enjoys snow as much as I do. Everyone else around here views it as a dreaded plague!

Now is the time in skiing when we dance...

It's that time of year again...

Every year, toward the end of summer, it hits. A feeling of lethargy, ennui, and wistfulness. I feel altogether tired of the relentless, oppressive heat and humidity of summer. Vacations are over, the pool is closed, so what's the point of this sticky, nasty weather hanging on? I'm eager for the cool crispness of fall, for evenings when you can see your breath while you look at the stars, and for the enchantment that comes from lighting a fire outside on the deck, and staring into the flames while spending time with good friends.

But above all, I'm anxious for winter. I'm not alone in this. I guarantee that if you ask any die-hard skiier, they'll tell you the same thing. We all suffer from feelings of unrest and yearning at this time of year, and there's a ritual that we perform in honor of the change of seasons. Every year, in this time period between the end of August and the beginning of October, I find myself drawn to my ski gear, down in the basement. I drag out my boot bag, and pull everything out of it. I fondly try on my gloves, which conform softly to my hands after years of use. I pet my warm fuzzy neck gaiter, and try on my favorite ski socks. And then I put on my boots, and buckle them up, and tromp around the house for a little while, just wishing, wishing, wishing that ski season wasn't still 3 months away.

I know I'm not alone in this.

Weather Reports

So, you might be wondering to yourself, "What's the weather going to be like this weekend? Is it going to be sunny, or is it going to rain?"

And the weather-people collectively answer, "Yes."


As I was reading the weather forecast for the next few days, it brought back memories of my high school Chemistry/Physics teacher. ("Mr. Todd, am I supposed to add this chemical or that chemical to my solution?" "Yes.") But the weather-folks here in Cincinnati seem to want to keep all their options open, just in case it's not an exclusive either/or situation:

• Friday - Intervals of clouds and sunshine with a shower or thunderstorm; breezy and very warm (78/59)


• Saturday - A blend of sun and clouds with a thunderstorm possible; very warm (78/58)


• Sunday - Clouds and sun with a couple of showers and a thunderstorm; warm (76/53)

So I guess that we can expect that it's going to be sunny, cloudy, rainy, AND stormy this weekend.

Suddenly Spring

Spring arrived yesterday with a flourish of green.

We had pouring rain on Monday, but yesterday was warm & sunny, with a clear blue sky. In the course of a single day, the grass changed from drab brown to bright green. In a few days, there will be daffodils blooming everywhere, and in a week or two, the first flowering trees will start to blossom...

Sick Day

Today I'm home sick with a bad case of bronchitis. I went to the doctor yesterday afternoon, and after hearing me speak (croak, actually) and listening to me breathe, she quickly wrote out a prescription for antibiotics. While she was writing, one of my (obnoxious, overwhelming, and exhausting) coughing spells occurred, and when she heard that, she quickly added an additional prescription for cough medicine. It's a particularly busy time at work, but I think I'm better off staying home and trying to rest than going to work and potentially infecting all of my co-workers, especially since we're all going to be travelling a lot in the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, my husband came down with the flu yesterday, so he's at home today too. When I'm not busy coughing, I'm worried that four days from now, when we're both on our next business trips, he'll come down with bronchitis and I'll come down with the flu. He'll be in Huntsville, Alabama and I'll be in Miami, Florida, so if you live in the Southeast, start taking your vitamins now.

So my occupation today mostly consists of reading, surfing the net, and watching the pets migrate across the living room floor, following the pools of sunlight that are streaming in through the windows. The dog usually spends weekdays in her kennel, so a sick day for us turns into a rare treat for her. Here they are-- Virgil the Dingy Dachshund and Emma the Tubby Tabby...



What I'm really bummed about is that in the last 24 hours, we got about 3-4 inches of snow, and it's a beautiful day today. (In Cincinnati, fresh, fluffly snow is unusual, as are sunny days in February. Both things happening together are rare beyond all reason.) We were scheduled to be on duty at the ski area, but obviously, neither of us is in any shape to be skiing. (We have ski patrol duty every other Thursday, and two weeks ago, my husband was out of town on a business trip, and I couldn't make it to the ski area because of bad weather, so I feel especially bad about missing two shifts in a row.) It's bad enough being sick when all I'm missing out on is work, but to be sick and missing out on good skiing is truly unfortunate.