Dan Antion

One-Liner Wednesday – Oh the Weather Outside…

 

“Ice is Nice”

In the days just before toward Christmas, Mother Nature gave us a good excuse to slow down and consider the true meaning of the holiday. Her message came in the form of 1/10th of an inch of ice, and she spread it over everything. Ice, freezing rain and freezing fog makes for some beautiful scenery…and some very dangerous driving conditions. We stayed close to home until the roads had been treated. Fortunately, the extreme cold we have been living with preserved the ice until well into the morning.

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s fun weekly series One-Liner Wednesday. If you have a one-liner, I’d encourage you to join in on the fun. You can follow this link to participate and to see the one-liners from the other participants. I almost forgot, this is also part of #JusJoJan – Thanks Linda for the prompts!

Not many people at Stop & Shop, but it just opened.
I gave Sammy a peanut hoping he would run back to his tree, but he decided to eat it here.
Late in the day
The road has been treated…don’t worry.
Everything is coated.
The stump that will be the base of Mt. Maddie (if we get snow instead of ice).
“Stay on the road”
Icicles
Sunrise
I spread a ton of salt and sand before leaving.
Everything is coated
Our street doesn’t look all that inviting.
Forsythia
The squirrels are trying to find the food under the ice.
Navigating these stairs will be difficult while attached to Maddie.
Nice coating
Every blade of grass
Every tiny branch
Covered in Ice
This was taken at the beginning of the storm
Snoopy’s place has a cold look today.
Maddie is confused (I am scared she’s going to pull).

 

74 comments

  2. This reminds me of last winter, when we had so much ice that it made me nervous to walk across the parking lot to my car…not to mention the layers that had to be scraped off the car. I was thinking ice might be better than the frigid cold, but no…it’s easier to drive on frozen pavement than iced pavement. Happy Wednesday, Dan.

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    • I’ll be careful, Cheryl. Faith got mom and dad – Grippers for our boots. If we can’t find a clear path in the ice, we just let Maddie fend for herself. That’s scary too, because if we let her off, she runs like a dingbat and she has fallen. I was worried when, in addition to the ice, Sammy showed up.

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  5. Hope you have your Yaktrax strapped to your shoes/boots. If not, Maddie needs to buy you a pair for being such a good dad and walking her in that kind of weather. :-) The forecast here is for mid 20’s today with snow flurries or maybe some light ice. They’ve closed everything. Stay safe.

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    • Faith got us both (me and the Mrs.) grippers for just this occasion. We didn’t have them for that storm, but we opened them the day after. We will do our best to stay upright.

      I hope the warmth you drove down there for, shows up soon.

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  6. Great weather to stay home in, Dan! I’m happy because this morning the temperatures, both real and with wind chill, are in positive territory, although the latter just barely. However, it’s a huge improvement over wind chills of -20 or more, so I shall be happy. I do have to go out shortly, to the dentist for a regular cleaning and later to run some errands. Other than that, I’ll enjoy the relative warmth of the house and hope you can do the same until the roads clear. I enjoy snow; ice not so much unless it’s on a skating rink or at a hockey game.

    janet

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  7. Dangerous as it is, I love ice. You got great captures of the ice on branches — love those. Had been enjoying Janet’s, too. Always a beautiful sight to behold.
    We had snow that turned to ice, always our street. Four years here, and I tell you my street may be the best predictor of winter’s weather!
    Salt is a marvel, until it’s tracked in the house. Then it’s an ARGH.
    Have a great day, Dan!

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    • That’s funny. Sometimes we ask if our street is really in the same neighborhood as the airport. We look at their weather (less than 2 miles away) and we look outside, and it doesn’t seem possible.

      I love the ice on the branches, but I have to remind myself that that means it’s on the ground. I keep the driveway and sidewalk safe, but we don’t put salt out in the back ‘cuz Maddie. We bought a couple bags of “pet safe” stuff for the back steps. My fear is that Maddie will see something and pull me along with her.

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  8. I know it is dangerous, but those ice photos are really pretty. Whew! For a minute I thought the base of Mt Maddie was a frozen turtle. Maddie is amazing–neither snow nor rain…..she is so pretty.

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    • Thanks Lois. It looks like we might get enough snow to start a proper Mt. Maddie. Hard to say. It’s one of those 3-10″ possible. In other words, they don’t know either.

      Maddie is ready for anything.

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    • Actually, those icicles are just growing through accretion. The water is supercold, and it freezes as soon as it hits anything (even an icicle). If you look close, the roof of the birdhouse is also covered in ice. All you can do is spread some sand and salt or wait for the sun to go to work.

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  13. I’d rather have a foot of snow than half an inch of ice. At least snow can be walked on without falling (unless you have a strong dog on leash trying to pull you off your feet). Our snow has crusted over and sections of the backyard are, in fact, slippery. Cody almost pulled me down twice this morning, but fortunately she stops pulling immediately if she knows I’m having trouble. Be careful out there, Mark.

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  14. Oh my, I hope your trees are not too damaged by this sleet. Four years ago it destroyed much of Slovenian woodland and there were casualties too. It also broke down the fence of the Ljubljana ZOO so that a couple of lynxes escaped. One met a terrible end and I wrote about it in my first blog post ever. It looks pretty though.

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  22. These are really great photos. But I think you took your life in your hands to take them.

    I love the frozen branches, and the icicles over the new shed door and on Snoopy’s House. But most of all I love the tree stump. The more I look at it, the more it looks like a big old turtle!! No Dan, I don’t drink!

    Hope you and The Editor and Maddie stay upright. Don’t wanna see any photos from your hospital bed!

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    • I took these while walking Maddie in the course of her business. So, no choice for me. We are very careful. I didn’t venture out on the roads until they had been treated.

      Someone else mentioned the stump looking like a turtle. I’ll have to look again. It may be covered in snow by tomorrow.

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  23. Dan, Ice is Nice in photos only. You got some really good ones. Do remember “ice” when I lived in New Jersey. Slipped on it and fell. Not a good memory. Glad you were careful and Maddie didn’t pull you on the steps. Checked weather. Maybe some snow tomorrow in CT. Yikes, temps are so cold there, daytime teens and single digits at night. Sending you some SoCal warmth & sun. Christine

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    • Thanks Christine, we can use the warmth. After the snow, it’s supposed to get very cold. Friday and Saturday lows of -3 and -8 respectively. They haven’t pinned down the amount of snow we might get tomorrow. Maybe 6-10″

      We try to clear the stairs before taking Maddie out. Sometimes, we try to just let her go, but she either sits by the door, or runs and plays but forgets the reason she wanted out..

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  25. Ice storms are so pretty, but not so nice when it knocks out power for a few days in the cold … at least that’s what always seems to happen here. I’m just as glad we didn’t get this one.

    Did you get walloped by the weather bomb yesterday? The news reports showed some seriously treacherous conditions! I feel badly for the people along the coast affected by the flooding – at these temperatures!!!

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  26. I hated ice storms growing up…had an episode when I first got my drivers license….let’s just say a large Ford LTD Station Wagon doesn’t come to a complete stop readily when you need it to on let’s say an ice covered road that comes up to a stop sign at an ice covered highway….thats what snow banks and ditches are made for!!

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