Valentines, Ice and Interview

Buddy:  I know none of you think of me - or any of us - as a romantic, but today is a special day so we have to remember to at least wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day.  We love you.

Cameron:  We have a great interview for you, but first we'd like to show you some highlights of our Wednesday night ice storm. And though many of you have undoubtedly had worse this winter, this is not "normal" for us. 

Merci:  We did have some snow flurries Thursday morning, but any white you see on the ground or floating through the air is strictly I-C-E!  Brrrr.

Percy: This was taken around sundown Wednesday.  Kind of dismal, isn't it!

Cyndi:  This was taken before midnight.  See the blue light?  That's a police car parked up the street.  We'll get back to this later. 

Rusty: This is what greeted Jan before 1 am this morning.  We went out to pee and came back in. Jan started to change into her pjs and heard a strange noise.  She went outside and saw this, but it was too dark to take a picture.  Although our neighborhood lost power for 12 hours shortly after this branch likely bounced off our power line, it was not the cause of the power loss.

Micah:  This was a tree in our neighbor's back yard.  The yard behind it is littered with broken branches from their tree. All that white stuff on the ground is ice, not snow.  And it's already melting and puddling. .

Buddy:  This happened two doors away.  When we dogs finally got out to walk Jan Thursday afternoon, the pile of branches under the tree was higher. 

Sam: Jan walked up to where the police car was parked (blue light in the night photo) the night before. There was yellow tape across the road to stop traffic. A large part of a tree was blocking one lane and an electric line stretched to the ground.  The line was on the ground for quite a way up the road.  A number of large oak tree parts had fallen on it in different places. Several  pine trees had broken in two.  What a mess!.

Merci:  On our walk, we came across two men using a chain saw to cut up a huge section of a tree.

"Firewood?" Jan asked.

"Yes, ma'am," one guy replied.  It's like this all over town.  You ought to see the other side of these woods!"

Well, Jan could imagine.  She stood outside before 1 a.m. in a dark world with no traffic to hide the sound of repetitive "gunshots" and crashes in the woods and neighborhood. 

Marcus:  This is my branch.  It was coated in thick ice. I kept carrying it into the house to play with and Jan kept throwing it out the door and I'd have to go retrieve it again.  Wednesday night I found a big chunk of ice and was having a good time playing on my bed when Jan screamed, grabbed it, and threw it outside.  I brought it back and she threw it over the fence.  So what if it was dirty? It was so fun to play with.  Why would she throw away my new toys?

Micah:  This should make you feel cold.  These bushes were beautiful and completely encased in a thick layer of ice. 

Buddy:  A wind kept springing up and blowing big chunks of ice off the trees. That's what those white spots are in the picture - ice chunks.  Jan got pelted on the head quite a bit while she was taking pictures.

Merci: While Jan was fixing her breakfast of peanut butter and bread (she wouldn't open the fridge and the toaster doesn't work without electricity), Jan witnessed an avalanche of ice fall from the neighbor's tree and a bunch of broken branches (to the left in photo) followed.  This is the tree that attacked our dog pen. 

Cameron:  Everything was shut down and trucks couldn't get out of Atlanta so we just had our first mail delivery since Tuesday. 

Buddy:  And the strange thing is that after the terrible weather this week, the ice melted quickly yesterday and except for the mud and small patches of ice here and there, no one would guess we've spent a few days in  "iceland." 

Sam: Well, that was our excitement for the year, we hope.  Jan was kind of lost without electricity.  Everything she could think to do - vacuum, computer, coffee, laundry - required power.  There wasn't enough light to read indoors.  We were all relieved when the power came back on and  hope everyone else in the path of the storm has power too.

Percy: This week we Funny Farmer Felines were privileged to interview Carlos from The Daily Cat blog for Mousebreath, the ezine for cats written by cats.  So please stop by and read The Daily Deeds of Carlos Cat.  If you don't already know him, we know you'll enjoy meeting him.

It's time for Rascal and Rocco's Pet Parade:Valentine Edition blog hop, co-hosted by Basil the Bionic Cat and us Funny Farmer Felines.  There are no rules and any kitty, dog or raccoon blogger can join.

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