Waiting For A Fierce Storm

We still hadn't ventured out in either car (one a Saab & one an Audi) since two days ago when the snow hit. Yesterday David tried to get his car, the Audi, up the incline at the end of our driveway, but ended up backing all the way down, which is about a city block long, through the woods & around a curve. He thinks maybe he didn't go fast enough to get enough momentum to get to the top, but it kind of spooked me & kept me from trying even though my car is heavier & stood a better chance of making it. A friend stopped by to leave a book & after he said he was going into town I decided to go with him just to see how the roads were & pick up a few items for dinner: ingredients for tacos. His car is a 4 wheel drive SUV & he had no trouble at all managing our driveway or the island hills.

Last night it got down to 10 degrees F., the coldest I think it's ever been here, at least since we've lived here. David is fanatical & fears the water pipes will freeze so he leaves all the cabinet doors open at night & the water dripping from all the faucets. Last night, as long as we had electricity (knock on wood!) he brought in a radiant heater from the garden house & put it in the hall near the thermostat hoping the slight rise in temperature that would be radiated would keep the furnace from going on all night. He is a notoriously light sleeper and every time the furnace goes on he wakes. I sleep the sleep of the dead. Usually, during ordinary winter weather around here the temperature doesn't get below freezing so the furnace rarely goes on during the night since we have it set to automatically go down to 66 degrees. The house is well insulated so rarely gets too cold. Even when we were out of electricity for three days one winter the temperature didn't get below 55 degrees inside.

Last night & this morning they've been telling us on the radio & TV that there's a big storm coming in later this afternoon, with high winds & snow, but rising temperatures. Any kind of wind with snow usually takes out the electricity here, so I told David I was leaving this afternoon & made a motel reservation. He wants to stay in the house & was planning to build a fire if the electricity went out, but since all the heat goes up the fireplace flue that kind of precaution will hardly affect the pipes, & since the temperatures are supposed to rise anyway he's debating whether to come with me.