a winter wonderland, sort of...

Good afternoon.
The ice storm that came through Saturday night, has left, but even through Monday, more branches were breaking under the weight of the ice. Greater Lansing started out with 48,000 without power Sunday morning. That grew to 85,000 by Monday afternoon. As of this posting, Tuesday afternoon, they've restored about 30,000.  It's being called the worst ice storm in 126 years.  I believe it. In the 28 years we've been in this house, I've never seen anything close to this.

 

Here's a pic I took today, approaching our house. As you can see, the entire top of the front tree is completely destroyed. The large branch on the left only looks okay, but the end is broke but not completely, and hasn't fallen yet,  And two other large branches are 'caught' on the trunk and haven't fallen to the ground yet.  I imagine if I left the tree, it would sprout new branches, but they would be even less sturdy than what was there originally.  So really, this big old tree will need to come down. ($$$$$)

There is nothing to save. And that goes with the back tree also. They are Chinese Elms. They have a large open branched shape. We should have cut them down 20 years ago, but even though they aren't nice looking shade trees, and the are constantly dropping branches, I liked the light dappled shade they had and the small leaves kind of disappeared in the fall.

Soooo, all this mess will sit until I call someone to clean it up. We decided to wait and let the mess lie since with so much area damage, I'm sure every type of tree business will be bombarded with customers. I've got the driveway clear, so the rest of the branches can just stay were they're at. It isn't pretty, but if we get enough snow, I won't see much of that either.  :-)

Anyway, driving around today, I took a few pics of what this type of ice can make for a pretty scene.

It really does look like a winter wonderland, as long as you don't drive through neighborhoods and see yard after yard with damage.

And on the way to and from work, we go by this tree we've been watching since last year. It started leaning after a heavy snowfall last year, and we keep thinking it should come down with any type of weather. But even after all the ice, it's still standing, although it seems to be leaning a little bit more.
I try and not stop in front of it when the light is red.   :-)
Work was short today, and afterwards, we had a nice lunch at Reno's Sports Bar.
Later this afternoon, we are going to watch a Christmas movie marathon. I downloaded a couple of Christmas themed movies that looked entertaining. If not, we can always watch some of our older classics.
And with that, a very Merry Christmas Eve.