ice out of order

The extent of the ice storm (part 1 - 1/27) at Highland:

ice tricks, part II

I spread the word this morning that the ice was ready to play on, so after church and potluck I convinced some more people to venture out there!

Talking to dad on the phone. He got off when I told him we were about to drive the golf cart across.

Tyler

Wes & J.P.

me laying on the ice

Oops! Nikie's sliding attempt didn't go so well.

This one was better.

Here's a procrastinator if I ever saw one.

Tyler again - this was about as far over the pond as he went.

Nikie and me

Ryan and me

walking on water

Again! The pond froze - one of the best things to come of all this cold weather.

I couldn't get anyone else to venture out there with me, but that didn't stop me.

My self-timer and I aren't afraid.

The ice is even thicker than before.

Me & my new coat - a birthday present from Ryan

Cattails frozen in place

See? If my head can't break it, nothing can . . . well, maybe Grant's head.

baby it's cold outside!

Well, we got halfway to the forecasted temperature for last night. We're up to 2.5 degrees! Weather.com says the wind chill is -6!

10:01p - back from vespers supervision and posting pics from this morning

I felt sorry for the birds on the deck this morning. They were all so fat-looking trying to stay warm. At least they could stop by for a sunflower seed meal at the feeder. I'm pretty sure the suet was frozen though.

We still have a bunch of goldfinches around in the winter and this time they're still eating out of my nyger seed feeder!

A pretty blue jay. I put some peanuts out for them at lunch, but didn't get to see the birds (or Ryan maybe?) eat them. Either way, the peanuts were gone when I got home at 4:00p.

And the one picture I wish had been clear and crisp . . . It looks like a little angry brown water droplet. On the subject of water, I put some out for the birds to drink, but it froze in the time it took me to take a shower. =(

Tomorrow morning . . . back to the pond!

bring on the cold weather!

The forecast for overnight and tomorrow makes me glad that Nikie and I have indoor exercise plans in place! We're headed into a pretty good cold snap.

But the good news is that my new ski coat came today! The company I ordered the one I wanted from called and told me the bad news that it wasn't actually in stock. So they gave me my choice of three other coats in a little higher price range without charging me more. I picked this one for various reasons . . . ski trip here I come!

So I'm ready for tomorrow's cold, but want it to go away quickly for fear of a giant gas bill again.

tornadic activity

As you all probably know already, a cold front came through Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. We watched the storms on radar and went through two tornado warning periods. The first one was over by about 10:15p. It went just south of us and then came up to the east where it hit that gas plant and caused a huge explosion.

These pictures are all just below "the ridge," about 4 miles from Highland. This is really the only damage I saw. If a tornado touched down here, it was only in a small area.

Looking north (toward Highland).

Used to be a barn, I think

You can see in this picture that the power line poles were pretty bent.

Crews spent a lot of time yesterday trying to repair the power lines. We didn't actually lose power until around 6:00p, when they shut it off to connect the lines.

toasty

From weather.com:

FOR THE THIRD CONSECUTIVE DAY...THE TEMPERATURE IN NASHVILLE HAS HIT THE CENTURY MARK. THE TEMPERATURE REACHED 104 DEGREES THIS AFTERNOON AT THE NASHVILLE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT...AT 355 PM CDT. THIS IS THE HOTTEST TEMPERATURE IN NASHVILLE SINCE 105 DEGREES BACK ON JULY 8TH, 1988.

THE HOTTEST TEMPERATURE EVER RECORDED IN NASHVILLE OCCURRED ON JULY 27TH... AND AGAIN ON JULY 28TH 1952...WHEN THE TEMPERATURE CLIMBED TO 107 DEGREES.

THE WARM UPPER LEVEL ANTICYCLONE THATS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE HOT WEATHER...IS EXPECTED TO REMAIN ACROSS THE REGION FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS...AS A RESULT...THE HOT AND DRY WEATHER WILL CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS.

misery in the forecast

I'm sure it's hot where you are too, but I really can't believe how hot it is here. This makes me want to go visit Antarctica or at least play in a sprinkler! At least I'll be inside at work. Our grounds crew is about to go on strike!

dance of the sugarplum fairies

JP Mathis has been telling everyone that she's been waiting for the pond behind their house to get totally frozen so that she can go walk on it. Well, the day has come. JP told us that she and Tyler walked on it last night, so I told Jaclyn we should try it in the morning. After all, it's coldest at night and the ice should be thickest then. As you can see, Jaclyn was totally convinced.

After gearing up, we set out for the pond. It was 20 degrees (Fahrenheit, for Matt) out when I checked the weather at 8:00a. The pond was perfect.













Crocs aren't the best shoes for ice skating. They hardly slid at all. Jaclyn and I were both wearing them, so we had the same problem. As you can see, the ice held me just fine.













We handed off the camera so Jaclyn could give it a try. The ice did crack a little and made really cool noises. Tyler broke through last night, but had to try pretty hard before he did.

Fortunately, I know that spreading out your weight is the best way not to fall through. Here, I was actually practicing my swimming strokes. I guess it's too cold for polar bear swimming. It would have been fun to have something to knock around on the ice, like maybe a puck, but the cracking was a little unnerving!

I decided it just wasn't slippery enough with the shoes, so I took them off. My SmartWool socks kept my feet warm and made me slide better.

If you click on the pictures of us standing up, you can probably see the small cracks that spread across the ice. The pond is probably only waist-deep. It only holds run-off water and has no outlet.

Jaclyn thought I was crazy to take the camera out on the ice. I wish we had brought some dogs along. I think it would have been hilarious to watch them try to stand on the ice.

I don't know if I'll get to walk on a frozen pond in Tennessee anytime in the near future. The high today is 34 degrees and tomorrow is supposed to be 44. I guess our cold snap has gone away. Oh, well . . . it was fun while it lasted . . . and we have pictures to prove it!