My own personal ice storm

It was a long, long time ago, and we were living in an out-of-the-way place in upstate New York. All afternoon glop poured out of the sky,looking like liquid ice or frozen rain, until the tree branches outside my window were covered with ice. It was very pretty, until night came and the power went off. Mr C got bundled up and was about to go outside to see what was going on when the phone rang. A neighbor informed us that there was a power line down right in front of my front door. Thank God he did not go.

Since the furnace required electricity to start, heat immediately stopped coming up. We put on all the clothes we could find and crawled into bed. The next day, it became clear we could not stay in the house, so we bundled up the kids and went to stay with a colleague of Mr C who kindly invited us. Their house was charming, but full of antiques and no place for two little kids aged 5 and 2.

Tree branches were falling all over the area, weighed down with heavy coatings of ice, destroying power lines. Roads were blocked as well. The local power company was overwhelmed. Crews had to be sent in from all over the state, and even so, power was not restored to everyone for eight days. We were one of the last to have our power restored. I said we were living in an out-of-the-way place, didn't I? The repair crews couldn't find us for a long, long time.

I ended up with a serious kidney infection and a hatred for living in the country, which persists to this day. i'm not too crazy about upstate New York either.