Pop, Crackle, Thump! The Ice Storm Cometh

Thanks to the marketing might of the Kellogg's breakfast cereal company of Battle Creek, Michigan; kids of my age could expect three busy little sprites by the name of Snap, Crackle and Pop to greet them at the morning breakfast table if they prevailed upon their mother to buy them Rice Krispies cereal.  
Well, this very morning I have been greeted by their evil triplets: Pop, Crackle and Thump.  

The day of December 6 dawned as a day that will live as a day of infamy. There were of course warnings about immanent hazards and destruction - but after a similar warning the weekend preceding Thanksgiving that amounted to nothing more than three-quarters of an inch of cold rain; so this warning of chaos and destruction for December 6 and 7 was taken lightly. 

I was awakened sharply at 4:28 AM with the report of a loud pop coming from overhead that made be flinch as I bolted upright from my warm bed covers.  Our dog, asleep at the foot of the bed sprang alarmingly to his feet as well.  We both listened to the subsequent creaking and crackling of falling timber, and then the reverberation of a solid thump.  We had just lost a large branch from the ash tree outside our bedroom window, the first of many casualties to fall in this early morning ice storm.  As I was first startled awake, I was bracing for it to hit the roof over our bed, but it fell across the front walk without striking a structure.  At 4:34 the second branch to fall was announced with the same series of pop! crackle and thump. It too fell upon the sleet and frozen rain covered lawn, missing the house.  Yet another series of ominous sounds rang out a few minutes later; it was then that I poked my sleeping wife to report to her that with all the falling timber outside our window, perhaps it was best if we removed ourselves from this exposed position and finish what was let of the night in the upstairs guest room.  She of courses said, "Huh? Dubber wolf aye kinda wiffle go to sleep -- what?" [she had been oblivious to the world falling apart and falling down all around her while she slept]

I calmly then whispered into her ear an additional explanation, "Let me put it this way; if we stay in this bed, you could die at any moment.  A cold and ragged piece of splintered wood might pierce your heart, crush your skull or maybe only snap your spine and paralyze you forever.  Do you understand?"  
Why yes, she replied, "That is the most engaging pillow talk I've had with you in a long time.  Let's get outa here my dear!"  We gathered up our respective pillows and encouraged the old dog to follow our retreat to higher ground.  For tornadoes, one is supposed to seek shelter in your basement (we do not have a basement), but for falling trees in an ice storm, seek shelter above the tree tops on the second floor (we do have a second floor).

Our first glimpse of downed branches
outside our front door window

At the crack of 11 AM, we rose safely from our bed of refuge and stepped out on to the crisp crust of ice and sleet covering the lawn to survey the damage. The tops of many trees, of many species have been broken off as the ice accumulated on the branches still flush with marvelous fall foliage.  The weight of that final ice crystal builds to the proverbial point of "the straw that broke the camel's back".  I saw this morning, our neighbor's with a 16-inch live oak branch snapped.  Sixteen inches of oak mind you! It takes a heck of a lot of force to snap such a mighty limb.

Top limbs of the ash tree outside our bedroom
have been broken off in the early morning

It is a day at home with a fire blazing, fueled by sawed up limbs and logs from the very trees that are once again fodder for my chain saw - once the weather warms above 28 degrees and when I feel no further danger to my head from additional falling icy limbs as I work beneath these devastated and denuded trees.

Oh my!  We could've been killed in our beds!
Sue surveys the icy mess in our front yard

The deep freeze from this arctic blast, may keep the roads frozen for the next few days, possibly into Sunday.  Sue is hoping for an "ice day" dispensation from the pastoral staff at Preston Hollow Presbyterian, which would entail the cancellation of Sunday School, for which she is responsible.  That fact is whether Sunday School is officially cancelled or not, no many in Dallas are going to get up Sunday morning to slide around on icy roads to get to church. And I bet her volunteer teachers will not be making the effort to skate out early Sunday either.

We're living in a Winter Wonderland.
Thought the weather outside is frightful...

Shattered Red Oak across the street

Ice entombed Crepe Mirtle

Ice Pear Branches in our backyard

Strider loves to go out in the snow and ice
with his thick black fur coat (and it's real fur)We let him go prowling without a leash
Since no cars are in the street and 
he shows up well against white background

Looks like a Merry
Red Berry
Christmas!