Saturday, January 15, 2005

Storm Damage


I didn't think that we had any real storm damage. Upon closer look, I was wrong. Ended up finding two broken boards in the roof, and a couple other damaged areas. It's a good thing that there was already a plan to re-shingle the roof this spring. Posted by Hello

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Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Ice Storm

For years the last week will be referred to as "The Ice Storm" No year will need to be used.
The following conversation was repeated many time all over town:

"Ya got any power?"

"Nope, you?"

"Yup, just lost it for a few hours. I'm going to be pickin' up sticks 'till the Fourth."

"Yup, Go Bucks"

This was our story:

1/5/2005 07:09

Kelli: "There is ice on my car!"

Marvin: "Didn't you watch the weather report?"

Kelli: "I'm not going to work"

Marvin-to-self: "Wimp"

14:58 Lima

Ice starts forming on the parking lot

22:22 Home

"Where are the flashlights?" "I wonder if the Buckeyes will pull it out." "What lights were on so we can turn the switches off?"

The lights went out without a flicker. That means there was no reclosure. Might as well get ready for bed, cause it's going to be a while.

After evaluating the situation outside I decided to move the Jeep into the lawn to a safer location. The Grand Prix looks like it will be fine where it is.


The car is fine came through without a scratch.


The book I was reading was begging to be finished so I was glad that it was on my PDA. So I laid in bed reading until 1 AM when I finished the book"

Side note: The book I was reading was "To the Last Man" Great book by Jeff Shaara. The style is historical fiction. You may be aware of his work if you have seen "Gods and Generals" which was based on his book of the same title or "Gettysburg" based on "The Killer Angels" written by Jeff's dad, Michael. To the Last Man is set around WWI. He started writing books around his dad's book. He wrote two Civil War books that were bookends to his dads book. Two Revolutionary War books and one on the Mexican War. All very good and entertaining.

1/6/2005 03:15

"SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS"
"I think the TV is still on"
"I think I only fell asleep 20 mins ago."

The light came on and we turned them off and tried to go to bed again. By this time there is a tree laying on the cable line and it is beginning to look like a war zone.

"Bang"
"Crash"
"Boom"
"Is the cat hiding in the closet?", "Wimp"

It's possible that there was more sleep but I don't think so.

05:02 Home

maybe a walk around the block will give me something to do since i am not sleeping. What a mess.

07:22 Home

Kelli: "Are you going to work?"

Marvin: "Yes"

Kelli-to-self: "Idiot!"

Checked out the office, T1 lines laying in the parking lot. (Update: 6 days later, still laying in the parking lot.) No power at the office so grabbed the laptop to head home. Took the country roads home. Roads were in good shape and successfully avoided the sheriff's department. (State of Emergency had been declared) Went by the Fair Grounds which was being used as the staging ground for the utility. There were probably 200 utility trucks in the yard getting ready for a week of 18 hour days.

I don't have a saw so I called a friend. He came over and we sawed up the big stuff and made the rest manageable.




We also cleaned up the street. The village had set out cones but had not opened the street up and traffic was a bit of a problem.


Late in the afternoon a limb from our neighbors tree fell into our garden. On the way it snapped one of the distribution lines in our backyard. This sent the line whipping through our yard before the fuse opened. Luckily this did not affect our power. Several of our neighbors were not luckily, it was almost 48 hours before that line was repaired.

1/7/2005

Kelli went to work and I worked from home. In the afternoon I decided to start clean-up. There was coming snow and there is no way I was going to pick up branches and twigs after 4 inches of snow. I spent the afternoon gathering the major stuff and creating a brushpile next to the street.



Good thing I did!


By Sunday evening most of our friends and neighbors had their power restored and things were starting to get back to normal.

As soon as the flood waters recede from the thunderstorms, we will need to rake the lawn to get rid of the thousands of small twigs and branches.

As I right this on Wednesday, there are some in Lima with out power. AEP is working hard to replace a half a dozen 150' poles and wire that cross a quarry. It's taking a while to get that section fixed.

One finial note. I would like to thank all of you for contributing to the cleanup effort here in NW Ohio. You may not remember contributing and no the contribution was not tax deductible. It was your taxes. There is a good chance that this little event will be declared a federal disaster and then we can have access to all those hard earned pennies that you have already freely given to government.

If you want to see more pictures or larger copies please stop by our Photo Gallery. Click here now! No work was done on the pictures. Everything straight out of the camera.

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Monday, January 03, 2005

Winter in Ohio

One week it's snowing and 0° and the next it's 55° and raining. The next two pictures show this extreme. The first one was taken on Monday December 27th 2004 and the second was taken on Monday January 3rd 2005. One week a part and a little bit of rain.






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