Ice Storm - Day 4 (afternoon)

Ruthie inspects the second hit our backyard fence took. This time on the opposite side of the yard and as the ice was melting this morning.

There was still lots of ice waiting to come down by mid-morning. The tree on the far right is the one that worried me the most because it towers over the west end of the house.

It's about 4:30 p.m. and I'm at the public library, using their Wifi. I had to come back into town because I discovered, while reading the owner's manual for the generator, that it needs an oil change after the first five hours of operation. I've run it about two hours today and I know we'll pass that mark this evening, so I need to pick up a quart of 10W30 motor oil.

I also discovered that the generator is also capable of putting out 240-volt power, which makes it possible to do laundry. Unfortunately, both of our water heaters are hardwired, so we can't have hot water for laundry or showers.

Most of the ice is melted, but there's still too much ice and branches falling out of the trees for it to be safe to stand under them. Things should be stable enough to do some chainsaw work tomorrow.

In the meantime, we can run our TV and DVD player for some welcome home entertainment tonight.