Brace Yourselves!

Mostly, that's what we're doing today, anyway. Apparently a huge ice/sleet/snow storm is on it's way to St. Louis.

Bread, milk & eggs are flying off grocery store shelves.

Hardware stores are sold out of every kind of snow shovel, ice scraper and bag of salt.

Gas stations are busy, with people trying to fill up their cars before Hades freezes over.

Big box stores are out of generators, kerosene heaters and lanterns.

They are predicting .5 to 1 inch of ice, followed by 3 to 12 inches of snow, followed by winds gusting up to 40 mph.

The biggest problem will be the ice. A half inch of ice puts an additional 50 lbs of weight onto above-ground power lines & tree branches. When the wind comes later, that will mean lots of broken power lines and many, many homes & businesses without power.

We are ready. We've got lanterns, ice melt, lots of food and a gas fireplace. We're prepared to hunker down for a few days. If we don't lose power, I'm sure I'll be posting about it.

And then again, everyone knows that the meteorologists in St. Louis are right about 55% of the time, so it could do absolutely nothing tonight. I'll let you know tomorrow!

Winter Visit

When the snow falls quiet,

we put out the tray of seed.

And a host of God's small creatures

come to visit for a while.

Thankful for what they receive,

they commune with each other,

with God,

and for a few moments, with us.