An appreciation for camp stoves and fire places

This is me standing by one of my trees.

For those of you who are not familiar with where Fayetteville lies on the map, it lies exactly to the north of the places that basically never get winter weather and directly to the south of the places that often get winter weather. In translation, whenever some winter precipitation falls in Northwest Arkansas, let's just say people get excited. Usually this excitement is somewhat over exaggerated and those of you from the north would find it to be somewhat annoying.

This week Northwest Arkansas received winter weather. Not the fun white powder snow everyone wants, but the rain/icy rain that freezes to everything it touches. The 5 o'clock news last night (which I got to watch because for some reason my house got electricity back even though none of the businesses close by had electricity) called this storm "Ice Storm 2009." This has proven to be rather correct and descriptive but dull. I think it looks more like a tree terrorist has become raged and attacked every tree in the area.

Last night on the news the weather report showed the ice accumulation totals for the entire northwest area. Sitting right on the map where my house would be was the highest amount at 1.5". The news described this level as "devastation." I don't know if I classify this as devastation, but there are a few cars with trees on them, some houses with trees on them, several downed powerlines, and the majority of the area is without electricity. I do know, however, that this storm has succeeded in closing down the University of Arkansas for 4 days!!!

As we have had no school and no power for a few days I have really not worked on any homework, but have cleaned my house, built a fire, cooked random things on the campstove, put on all my ski gear and took my dog on a walk, sat, and tried to read a book (when it was light outside).

Well, now that I have electricity and the sun is shining I am going to go try to get some work accomplished. I will likely go in to work at Land O' Lakes if they have also re-gained power. Imagine being a vendor for Walmart and having no power for a few days. I bet things are going to be a little crazy back at the office.

Attached are some pictures so you can check out "Ice Storm 2009."

This is my neighbor's tree. Basically every bradford pear in the neighborhood looks exactly like this one. Do not plant bradford pears where you might have an ice storm one day.

This is a nearby street to my house. You can't see very well, but there are several trees on the road and on the houses.