Stay Home, Stay Home

When the ice storm settled in on Tuesday (Dec. 11), our school was ready with a "Stay home" message. The first day seemed innocuous on the face of it - with occasional sounds of crackling branches dropping into the river in the back yard. The trees were awe-inspiring in their glittering coldness. The electricity sputtered a few times, but it never quite went out. Things were fine enough to get stored up on water and food...and batteries. With online connectivity, it was like another day at the office without the phone calls. And without the colleagues. Then, the limits of a home office become clear. The software that has corrupted and has to be re-uploaded. The files left in the office that would be helpful for reference.

The Doing Without

And then, Days 2, 3, and 4...rolled around. The ice has burdened the trees and snapped numerous electrical poles. Roads have been closed, with orange cones put around the fallen trees. Those who need electricity to pump their water have been without that. Whole sections of town are in the dark. It's been a week of extremes - in-office temperatures from a wonky furnace amped up to the 80s and 90s. Then my colleagues came into the office unshaven, with hair out to there, and no makeup. Another twisted her shoulder in a fall on the ice. Their stories have been ones of home temperatures in the 40s, blow-up beds and sleeping bags in school labs, heading out to town for the 'rents for heat and a hot meal and a shower. I hear about strategies for keeping food cold in the snow (out of the sun). One of my colleagues lets loose on a line of foul language this morning, and I heard later that he'd been without energy and water in his home for days and had been working in a different building because electricity hadn't been restored to his workplace yet. The hotels have filled up. The restaurants have refugees from the cold. My neighbor's car stops functioning. I'm breaking icicles off the mailbox to open it. Driving is all about reading the road surfaces and tapping the brakes way earlier than usual, and with a different touch. Projects have gone on the back burner as the focus now has gone to getting through this. And snows are predicted for tonight. (The photos were used by permission of Neil Erdwien, 2007.)