The good news is that it has stopped snowing. The bad news is, it's Wednesday AM, 00:07. Yes, it snowed all damned day. Our power went off at 14:00, and I kept hearing crashing sounds. I got up to investigate. Our trees were falling down. The snow was very wet, and the leaves are still on the trees. Makes the branches really heavy, then gravity takes over.

Sometimes I hate gravity. Usually I hate gravity, but especially now. Just before I left for work, an 18-inch diameter limb fell on the house. It's probably forty feet long, and it carried a 12-inch limb with it. I will be really surprised if there isn't major damage to the roof structure. I don't know what's happened since then, but I know that the power is back on... Karen called about 23:00 and let me know that Andy and Karla and Drew were staying over, 'cause they had no power.

Weatherpeople. Blew it again, didn't they? That's what I get for bad-mouthing them, I guess.

The power came on just before Karen got home, and then went off again, so we decided to go out to eat. We went to Courtney's, my favorite place. It was crowded, a lotta people had the same idea, I guess. They took our order and brought coffee. We left 55 minutes later, still unfed. I was pissed, and still hungry. I ate a bowl of cereal (but I had ordered an omelette! I Wanted an omelette!) and went to work.

And work was busy. Spent the evening xraying peoples' heads and necks... lotsa auto wrecks. Slick roads. Stupid drivers. First snowfall, whoda thunk it? 22nd of October, probably a record for the earliest measurable amount of snow here. About six inches, altogether. Plus rain and sleet.

Still gotta headache; it's supposed to be gone by now... curable with tylenol, though, luckily. Comes back when the tylenol level dips. Eatin' them pills. I hate pain. Well, usually.

Usually, with ice storms, the trees are bare. The leaves have already fallen. Then, unless it's really bad, the dead branches break off, and the live ones are strong enough to withstand the weight of the ice in most cases. With this one, though, the leaves ice up and accumulate the wet, heavy snow, and the live branches break. I was outside when several branches gave way. Kinduva "creak...creak...snap...crash" type of deal. Scary. I moved out from underneath the trees, watched from a distance.

We have (or maybe had is the right term) three big, beautiful maple trees, two in the front and one in the back. About 40 years old, probably. Huge trees, probable four foot diameters at the bottom of the trunks. Excellent shade trees. Do a lot in the summer to keep the house cool. Can do much damage hitting the roof. Damned gravity!

04:00... interesting night. Multiple brownouts and surges, even with the generator power for the hospital operating. Evidently KP&L are working the city, restoring power. When they restore a line, we get brown. When they restore a line and it goes out immediately, we get a surge. This is not doing the many computers in the hospital any favors... the CT scanner computer at the other hospital (Stormont-vail) is down, so we're having to do their CTs' too, besides our own. A hassle, arranging transportation, etc.

I'm glad I got that UPS a while ago... my computer is safe. I hope. I hope the power is still on at home and the roof is intact. It's warming up appreciably now, probably about 38 degrees f, with a mild southerly wind. Snow is melting. It'll be all gone by 11:00, they say. They said it wasn't supposed to snow except for flurries, too. I'll wait and see. The forecast is for rain again by Saturday, too, with highs in the low 40s.

The night is over, and I'm breaking with tradition... I'm going to get eight hours of sleep today, instead of four, like I usually try to do. Also, the tree limb on the roof doesn't look so bad today, I think I can get it down by myself, instead of having to hire someone. I noticed a lot of damage while driving home. They're saying that this was almost as bad as the '84 ice storm.

Tomorrow.... I'll be awake all day, working. Cutting trees, crap like that.