We May Be At the End...Sort Of

Just talked to my mom (we live right next to Mom and Dad) and she had talked to one of our neighbors, who had, in turn, talked to someone from the electric company. The bad news is that we are on our sixth day without electricity. The good news is that they expect everyone to have power by tonight. I pray that's true.

The generator has been a godsend. After several days, though, babysitting the thing gets a little tiring. Change the oil every 24 hours, re-fuel it every eight (give or take). I guess that's the price you pay to have electricity when the lines are down. I had taken an extremely cold (let's say frigid) shower last night, so was ready for bed. At 11:30, I had to put all my clothes back on, put on my overalls, and go outside to top off the generator so it would have enough fuel to run till morning. I put the last of the gas in it this morning and that filled it up. My wife will have to go into town and fill both five-gallon cans back up, just in case we need it another night. I'm not taking any chances any more.

Soon will come the fun part: cleaning up the several tons of limbs that are strewn about the property. Oh yeah, and we're supposed to get snow this weekend:

/O.EXT.KSGF.WS.A.0004.071215T0000Z- 071216T0600Z/ BOURBON-CRAWFORD- CHEROKEE-BENTON-MORGAN-VERNON-ST. CLAIR-HICKORY- BARTON - CEDAR - JASPER - INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...FORT SCOTT... PITTSBURG... BAXTER SPRINGS... COLUMBUS...WARSAW...COLE CAMP... VERSAILLES... NEVADA...APPLETON CITY... OSCEOLA...HERMITAGE... LAMAR ... EL DORADO SPRINGS...STOCKTON...JOPLIN... CARTHAGE 430 AM CST FRI DEC 14 2007
...WINTER STORM WATCH NOW IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING...

THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM THIS EVENING THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING.

SNOW WILL SPREAD INTO THE WATCH AREA BY FRIDAY EVENING. THERE MAY ACTUALLY BE TWO MAIN PERIODS OF SNOW...ONE FRIDAY EVENING INTO THE OVERNIGHT HOURS...AND THEN ANOTHER SATURDAY MORNING THROUGH MIDDAY. OVERALL AMOUNTS WILL RANGE FROM 5 TO 7 INCHES IN THE WATCH AREA WITH LESSER AMOUNTS TO THE SOUTH OF THE WATCH AREA EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

THE WATCH AND POSSIBLE SUBSEQUENT WINTER STORM WARNING AREA WILL LIKELY BE ADJUSTED TODAY AS MORE CONFIDENCE IN THE PATH AND STRENGTH OF THE STORM SYSTEM DEVELOPS.

A WINTER STORM WATCH MEANS THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SIGNIFICANT SNOW... SLEET...OR ICE ACCUMULATIONS THAT MAY IMPACT TRAVEL. CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS.