Winter Wonderland

Last weekend we awoke to a chilly house. Our furnace had stopped some time during the night. In the process of investigating the matter, we managed to screw up our thermostat. So after the furnace repairman gave us a visit I dashed off to Lowes to purchase a programmable thermostat. Installing it was, as it turned out, pretty darned easy, and I have been delighted with the convenience of this little device. Our old thermostat had no features at all, and I’d often forget to reduce the heat before leaving for the day. Now, no such worries! We wake every morning to a warmed house, content in the knowledge that our heating bill won’t be (too) exhorbitant due to wasted heat during the working day.

That is to say, we wake every morning to a warmed house on those days when our electricity is working. Last night we were awoken by the screaming of our UPS alarms, letting us know that we were without power. When we finally crawled out of the warmth of our bed this morning, the juice had not yet been restored.

We puttered around for a bit, hoping the power would be restored promptly. After a bit, we decided to walk across to the Giant Eagle for warm drinks and lunch.

The trees in front of our house were covered in ice. I’ve never seen ice coat the entire trunk of a tree in this way before. It was remarkably beautiful. The weight from the ice made the branches sag low. A nearby tree couldn’t handle the weight.

It looked like the car only suffered minor scrapes from the little branches. Same for the Bump sign.

The bus stop shelter was covered in ice, and provided a rather surreal effect.

After lunch, still lacking power, we decided to trek out to the movie theater to watch Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. The twins have absolutely loved listening to the audio books of this series (and who can blame them? Tim Curry does such a wonderful job!). The movie crams the events of the first three books into one presentation, so obviously a lot is lost. But the overall tale remains true, and it was certainly fun to watch the story brought to life in this way. Tyler rolled with laughter at the Lacrimose Leeches – she must have had a very different mental image of what that scene from the book. Tayler cowered during the hurricane scene; but overall the film was very age appropriate – as are the books, surprisingly.

After the film we were delighted to learn that our power had been restored. So now we’re going to hunker down for the night, eat some warm food, and enjoy looking at the winter wonderland from the comfort of our home.