Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to one and all!

This Christmas Eve morning is so very different from the one I had in 1998 and the other holidays close to it.

Happy Holidays 2021

How my Holidays started

I was sitting at my computer that morning much the same as I am now but I lived in Virginia then and I was going through some rough times. I was in the process of a messy divorce, my sons were adults and living on their own, and I was facing my first Christmas alone, ever. Alone except for my dog Beau who was sick with a bone infection and on medication. I was pretty worried about him.

I was writing an email in the wee hours of the morning and I was about to send it when my computer screen went dark. It took me a few seconds to realize that the power had flickered and shut off my computer because the house had been dark except for my computer screen.

I booted back up dreading having to write the email all over again. When I started to write the email the second time my screen went black once more. My mind raced and I wondered if I was having electrical issues in the house and I worried about that because I was already facing so much that I had been feeling overwhelmed. As I fretted and stewed I walked over to turn on the living room light so I could see well enough to make sure the plug to my computer wasn’t loose and hoped that was the only problem. The overhead light didn’t come on. It was then I realized that the power was completely off.

I could barely see light outside my windows so I walked to my front door and opened it. My neighbors didn’t have any lights on. Their outdoor Christmas lights weren’t lit which seemed strange since they left them on all night long.

Befuddled Holidays

I stood there alone trying to figure out what was going on. Then I saw ice. Ice on the power lines. Ice on the steps. Ice covered my Jeep. Ice on the azaleas that lined my front sidewalk. As dawn was breaking I saw that my forsythia was bent to the ground and covered in ice.

I heard what sounded like gunshots. Some were far away and some sounded as close as my backyard. I knew that sound. I had heard it before. It was the sound of branches snapping under the weight of the heavy ice.

I stood in the doorway as the cold stung my cheeks and realized that there had been an ice storm overnight. The power was out because somewhere the power lines had been brought down by what looked to be nearly three quarters of an inch of ice.

I closed the door to keep the heat I had in the house and hurried to get dressed as the sun rose on that Christmas Eve morning. I bundled up so I could take Beau out to do his business in the backyard.

I wasn’t prepared at all for what I was about to see. I had more trees and shrubs in my backyard than I had in the front at my house. When I stepped outdoors with Beau the deck I had built was slick with ice. We both nearly fell on our butts.

Ice covered my world on the holidays

Ice laden tree branches had crushed large sections of my fence. My 15 foot tall crepe myrtle had bent over and was frozen to my fish pond. Branches were groaning, cracking, and snapping and I watched a few fall while Beau did his business. It looked like a bomb had gone off in my backyard.

I got Beau back in the house and thought about all of the clean up I was going to have to do once the ice melted. I made a cup of coffee by boiling water on the gas stove I had purchased just after buying the house. My neighbors had laughed at me for getting rid of a perfectly good electric stove and replacing it with a gas stove that used propane. That morning I was more than grateful that in power outage I could at least cook indoors and that I had a large propane tank to get me through a disaster. I was also grateful that I had bought a French press coffeemaker. I had coffee.

Could things be any worse?

I didn’t know how long the power was going to be off. I lived way out in the country close to the Chesapeake Bay. I thought it might be a day or two so I decided I’d better do what I could to make Beau and I comfortable for the duration.

But first I dug out the old Canon AE1 I had and put a roll of film in it and wandered outside as the sun caused my ice covered world to glitter. I hadn’t picked up the camera to do anything other than to photograph my sons in years and it felt great to have it back in my hands. I was careful to not walk under any of the taller trees as I photographed the damage the ice had caused. The ice sparkled in the sunlight as branches snapped and fell. I was outside in the front yard when a large branch snapped, hit the roof of my house, slid down the roof, got hung up on the gutter, and I watched that branch tear the gutter right off of my home.

The ice was surreal.

It was also mesmerizing to photograph that damn ice.

Still with me? I promise there is a an end to this with a lesson that I learned that morning.

I finally put the camera in the house and went out to the backyard again. All of the wood I had stacked for the fireplace was covered in ice. I took a hammer to the woodpile to break the ice on the top of the wood hoping to find some logs that were dry enough to at least start a fire. I used pine cones and pine straw as kindling back then and those were all covered in ice too every where I looked. By then I could hear the neighbors were up and about and heard someone pounding on my front door. Wayne, one of the neighbors had brought me a wheelbarrow of firewood. What a gift that was on that powerless Christmas Eve morning!

I used a draw knife my dad had given me to shave some thin strips off wood off of the dry log to make kindling and before long I had a fire going in the fireplace to help keep the house warm.

I didn’t know that morning that I would be without power until about 6 pm on New Years Eve. A week without power meant no running water but because my well had died earlier in the month I had gallon jugs of water on hand. No power to the well pump meant no water to flush the toilet so I used an axe to chunk ice out of the fish pond to melt it on the outdoor grill burner in my huge old crab pot to flush it when it really needed to be flushed.

My gas stove came in handy that week as I cooked the food in the freezers before it went bad. Beau and I ate well that week. On Christmas Eve I even cooked a steak and baked a potato in the fireplace. That baked potato was the best baked potato I have ever had in my life. At night I had oil lamps to see and read books by. My youngest son, Chris, and some of his friends were able to stop by that night and that truly lifted my spirits.

My holidays were rough

I had to stay at the house to keep the fire going so the pipes didn’t freeze but on Wednesday of that week when the temps were going to be above freezing I drove the long 55 miles into town with Beau so we could spend the night at my parents, so I could shower, and so we could both get warm. By then the roads had been cleared of most of the branches that had crashed onto the roads. I got more water and drove back home to keep the pipes from freezing.

Throughout that week I realized over and over just how tough I was, how resilient, how resourceful, and that even faced with a disaster I was going to be okay. I learned some incredibly valuable life lessons.

I also realized during that week that I thoroughly enjoyed having a camera back in my hands. That ice storm on the holidays? It got me back into photography and that is why I do what I do today after combining it with my passion for birds and nature. My passion has become as much of an unstoppable force as the ice storm and Mother Nature.

This morning there is only a tiny bit of snow on the ground from last weeks record breaking snowfall because temps have warmed up and the wind and rain melted what was left. Maybe tonight or tomorrow on Christmas Day snow will fall. But there isn’t an ice storm this morning and for that, I am grateful.

My journey through life continues and I am stronger today because of that ice storm in 1998. Even without power I still had power.

Wherever you are, whatever holidays you celebrate if you celebrate at all, I wish you joy, peace and hope that you will feel the love of your family and friends today and every day.

Life is good.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to one and all.

With love from me to you,
Mia

P.S., The background of the Christmas trees in my holiday greeting is a photo of the frozen marsh at Bear River MBR that includes Herring, California, and Ring-billed Gulls on the ice and the snow covered Wasatch Mountains off in the distance.