Monday, January 16, 2012

a little explanation ...

Yesterday I created a new blog for Allison to post her novel Poor Girl, Rich Girl (project for Challenge for Change at school). I changed all the "about me" info to make it about her & her project, & now it says that all my posts for THIS blog are by Allison too. :-) So just ignore that; if you're reading "little house" it's by me, Jeannie.

Be sure to check out Allison's blog at
http://poorgirlrichgirlallison.blogspot.com/
and read her excellent novel! You'll be hooked after the first chapter! ...

Jeannie

Friday, January 13, 2012

ice storm 2012

We had an ice storm in Kingston yesterday. Not nearly as devastating as the one in 1998, but severe enough to cause quite a few power outages throughout the city and surrounding areas. We woke up to see everything encased in 1-1/2 cm of ice -- it looked beautiful and magical.

There were no school buses running, so even though Jonathan does not take a bus and Allison's school is within walking distance we decided to keep both kids home. Allison spent the ENTIRE day working on a school project, while Jonathan enjoyed his usual puzzles, cd's etc. Rich's volunteer commitment at Run & Read was cancelled, so we enjoyed a quiet day at home.

We went to bed having had no power interruptions at all, but at about 11:30 p.m. we lost power. However we weren't so anxious when we looked out to see a hydro crew in the back yard behind ours, chainsawing some tree limbs that had fallen on power lines. Whether they had turned power off deliberately so they could remove the branches, or whether the branches had caused the outage, we don't know -- but at about 1 a.m. the power surged back to life again. What a nice feeling to hear the furnace click back on and the sump pump pumping!

This morning we awoke to rain; fortunately the overnight temperature was high enough for all the branches and wires to be de-iced. Now it's snowing and Allison is heading out to her bus. We are back on track -- though bracing for 5-10 cm of snow and high winds today. Considering we've had basically no winter until now, I guess it's time to face the season! Bring it on -- we can take it.