Too Much Ice for Sleep

There will be no sleeping tonight. As I sit here in the dark at 12:37 in the morning, I can hear my trees outside dropping branches one after the other as the weight of hours of ice becomes too much to bear. When we bought this house 7 years ago, it was surrounded by beautiful, big trees that shaded our house from summer sun and winter wind. So far, we've lost two---one to disease and one to Ike---and I fear we will have to take down two more once this storm is over.

The day Ike came through, Kirk was at drill in Frankfort, getting soldiers off to the Gulf Coast to help the folks down there. When our pine tree started pulling up from the ground, all I could do was stand there and watch as each gust lifted it further and further out of the dirt until it finally fell over with a quiet "woosh." Tonight, Kirk is gone again, this time on business, and I have watched helplessly all afternoon as the freezing rain fell onto the trees and coated them with, so far, a half inch of ice. Now, as the branches break off one by one, all I can do is sit here and pray that one of them doesn't land on my house or my neighbors'. So far, we've lost about 6 or 7 BIG branches. Both pine trees have lost 2 or 3 and the maple has lost at least one that I can see. It's a mess out there.

I'm also concerned that the electricity will be going out. About an hour ago, my son and I were outside listening to the breaking trees when we saw the green flashing lightning that was a transformer blowing. THAT was wild. It was just like lightning, but it was really green! It turned the sky color and made a buzzing sound. I've never seen that in real life before.

And so, I can't sleep. My kids are worried the trees will crash into the house. I'm worried the trees will crash into the house. My son is so concerned, he's sleeping on the couch in the family room! I wish I could rest, but I will probably sit here in the blue chair, watching CNN, waiting for the lights to go out, and listening for the telltale crackling sound as yet another branch crashes to the ground. With freezing rain predicted for another couple of hours and then 3 to 5 inches of snow on top of that, it's going to be a long night!