As the Lobster Boiled – The Ice Rained down

As the Lobster boiled the trees fell down.

It was the day after the nastiest Ice storm in memory and we in the manor house were eating lobster and steak.  The manor house is the farm house at the apple orchard that is the core of our small New England town.  Life in our town revolves around the orchard that snakes in and out through the entire length of our main street.

Our best friends are the next generation in the family.  The home is theirs and has been a christmas movie of a place for my dear friends to raise a family.  Many Thanksgiving, New Years and Christmasses have been enjoyed there by the Hampster family.  Saturday Dec. 13, 2008, this was the scene as we prepared to settle in to our dinner of Lobster and Steak.

Damn that was a great meal.  Thursday/Friday night the power had gone out as trees fell on power lines from Eastern New York to the coast of New Hampshire.

Knowing a possible storm was coming, I had wheeled my Sears generator out back to the basement bulkhead entrance.  I strung the cables and went inside to bed.  Yes.  I had my flashlights, oil lamps and lanterns out and ready.

I turned in after the 11 PM weather had assured me that any bad ice would be restricted to the western part of NH.  I woke up at 1:30 to a sound most people have never heard.  The sound of cannon fire in the forest of New Hampshire.  Laying in bed, that is what it sounded like.  A cannon would fire followed by a huge crashing sound like trays of champagne glasses being dropped.  Imagine the sound rolling through the quiet of the night.  Every 15 seconds or so another huge Oak or Maple would explode under the weight of ice that had only had an hour to build up.  Every 4th or 5th would be a full tree and the house would shake as it crashed to the ground.

That was one hour into this incredible storm and it kept raining and freezing until noon Friday.

I drove my wife to work at the hospital Friday morning at 6.  We had to zig zag through trees and drove over powerlines but we made it.  I then turned around and headed home to find out that all routes home were now blocked as more trees had fallen and continued to fall.  I finally drove my Forester through a birch that was arched over the street.

Long story shortened.  Friday as trees fell I spent the day laying extensions from my generator through the house then twice sat in line to buy gas for the generator.  I’ve been filling the tank every night around 2 am and barely sleeping at other times.  The wood stove is a godessend but I did have to steal wood from our friends at the orchard.  Next year I’ll have plenty of maple and oak to burn.

So we and a couple of hundred thousand others are living in 40 degree homes without hot water, showers or stoves.  The elderly and sick have all gone to the shelters, one of which is about one half mile from the manor house.  That stretch of road with the police, fire and town offices is always the first to be restored in an outage.  That’s why Saturday night we went to dinner after just a text message confirmation.  Cells don’t work here for crap but text does and all land lines are out.

Before I go on I want to further explain that as the ice finally melts in the warmth of Monday when I write this, the trees are still falling.  Ice will melt off a slingshot tree and woosh, down it goes.

I expected a nice pasta dinner with friends but the old dude orchard owner, the town’s #1 citizen, had just returned from France.  He was our champion of all things Obama.  I give him credit for listening to all the candidates through the early days of the primary.   Me lord is a wonderful, caring citizen and allows any candidate of either party use his land and public picnic area.  My Democratic committee hosted many events there in 2007.  Somehow he became a bamazoid of the worse kind.  The man who I had many a political discussion with now was one who had his ears closed to anything wrong with his chosen one.  But that’s almost ok.  What is not ok and is bothering me is what I’ve seen as so common with the droids.  My wife included.

They say one thing but do another.  They’re all for the environment but refuse to use reuseble shopping bags because the plastic are so convenient for our little trash cans.  Andy speaks about all the good Obama will do for the poor, the helpless and the defenseless.  Then in the middle of a war zone covered in ice, he serves up a dozen lobsters and steak to eight of us lucky enough to be there.  I was the one who made a toast to “the Obamas”.  I said that as an American I wish them a long and successful stay in the White House.  No one mentioned the people at the shelter down the street.  Nobody even really talked about the storm.  It was right out of a movie where the elites in their castle don’t even realize the suffering around them.

And that is how guilty I’ve felt the last two days.  I’ve eaten with the elitist Obamaziods who talk the talk but rarely walk the walk.  They speak of helping people while the pick up truck driving guys they detest are actually out there cutting a neighbor’s tree up or helping to pump an old ladies basement.  To them, helping means money and laws not sweat and dirt.

The lobster was awesome by the way and as of today we still have no power and don’t expect it back until the end of the week.  I’ll come back to the office tonight to get online again and read your input and maybe some other experiences from the storm.

Cross posted from my Partizane

The second pic is the tree I drove through.