Winter Weather Warning

Please forgive me for blogging about recent history, not current events. I am so very behind. It's the 10th of January, and I'm just starting to dig myself out from under the pile of "must get it done". It wasn't the holidays, I swear. I had all of that planned and taken care of well in advance. No, God threw me (and about 90,000 other people) a curve ball.

The truth is, I think this is where I got so completely behind and overwhelmed. The second weekend of December, a HUGE ice storm hit the Midwest. I remember reading that it affected 15 states. Well, at first we had power when a lot of people didn't. So, we had people at our house.

Our yard (heck, the whole town!) looked like a war zone. Then, late that Tuesday evening, we lost power, too. It didn't come back on until Sunday morning, while we were sitting in Church.

I'm gonna have to say, my favorite modern convenience is currently electricity! (pun intended) But like I said, our yard is a mess. All those trees I love so much are pretty torn up. The elm by the house - the one with the huge wood swing that holds four kids - may not survive. And look at this next picture to see what came down over the sidewalk up to the back door!

But this is the silver lining: all the people in our town came together. Everyone was checking in on everyone else. People who had power were taking in those who didn't. The community center was opened up for anyone who needed a warm place to be. The University - which still had power - opened up the dorms (the students were already gone for the holidays) for employees and their families, plus all the out-of-area utility employees who were here to help put everything back together. We played a lot of games late into the night Tuesday and Wednesday. There are several university professors in our little Branch, and one of them invited us to a potluck dinner and a movie night in one of the class rooms on Thursday. People I've never met before came and hung out and visited and swapped stories. It was an amazing display of community and humanity.

And the "Home Teacher of the Year" award goes to this guy here. The day after we got power back, our Home Teacher - the incomparable Jerry Cluff - stopped at our house on his way to work. He just happened to have his chain saw in the back of his truck. He cleared the log off our sidewalk, and then roamed around the yard , sawing away at limbs here and there, cutting stuff into short-and-small enough-to handle pieces. And that's just one more reason why I love being a Mormon.

The day before yesterday, Hyrum and two of his friends helped Mark and I round a bunch of the branches and debris up and start a bonfire. We made a sizable dent, but there is still so much to be done. This Saturday, the city is asking for 300 volunteers with saws and trucks to help residents dig out. Mark and several men and youth from our Branch went and helped out. I wish I had a picture of some of the three-story piles of brush that are being collected. I love living in a small town. Natural disasters bring out the best in the whole community.