Several hours later

It's pretty warm out and things are melting a little, though the ice is still very thick on the branches. The dogs are dying to go out, but out front it looks like someone dumped 200 pounds of ice cubes around the front steps and out back the snow is glazed over, so they either break through it or have to step on the jagged uneven bits they already broke through. I've been getting some "why are you doing this to us?" looks. Timber's more or less settled into Taenzer's crate, where he looks heartbreakingly sad, and Taenzer's staring wistfully out the living room windows and barking at every opportunity.

Things have stopped falling for the moment--although when I was out just now, things were cracking and tinkling over my head. Like a dope, I stood there and gawped upwards, then thought, "You idiot, don't stand there like a chicken in the rain and get bopped on the head!" I got part of the back sidewalk cleaned off down to the cement--yay!--but not all of it because (a) a big branch is lying across it and (b) there's a loose wire lying under the branch. It's probably not dangerous--since I still have power and dial-up, it's probably the old cable tv wire, and I don't have cable tv--but I decided not to mess with it, and called Comcast to come do something about it.

I also got most of the front steps cleared off--I'll go take another whack at it in a couple of hours. I don't even know how to tackle the front sidewalk--as I said, it looks like it's about a foot deep in spilled ice-cubes. At least the dogs can get down the steps without hurting themselves and I can get down to the mailbox more or less safely.

I'm worried because--er, well, because I'm a natural-born worrier (no duh!), but also because it's really pretty warm--I only needed my Lopi sweater and a pair of gloves out there while I was working--but the low tomorrow night is supposed to be in the single digits--which implies a front coming through, blown by wind, which will break more things off. Possibly bigger things. We need at least one more day of warmish weather--at least! --to get all this melted off, and we're not going to get it. The extended forecast doesn't show above freezing until Christmas Day.

The dept. chair has branches down at her house and, because she has no garage or carport, her car is pretty much glazed over. My boss has a big branch down leaning against the house in front of her carport and on top of an as-yet-unbroken power line, so she has to wait for someone to come cut her out before she can go anywhere. Have heard of several people without power and one person with damage to his house.

I have to find someone to push the branches off the house and garage roofs and to cut the branches into 8-foot lengths so the city will pick them up.

Meanwhile, I think I'll take a nap.