The Freezing Rain Incident

I suppose in hindsight, it makes sense that the first project after the computer fiasco would focus on a disaster of relative proportions: The Freezing Rain Incident of 2017. For those keeping track at home, the Incident (as we are calling it for this piece) really lasted for a month. And in some respects, continues to this day – let me explain…

December 2016 and January/February 2017 were bitching cold. It snowed regularly during these months but the snow was so light, it just blew wherever the east wind directed it. As we slowly began to warm into the upper 20’s and lower 30’s (and on a similarly windy night), we experienced an inversion and it began to rain – no, pour – for the entire night. Pat and I got dressed at about midnight in anticipation, and waited for the unexpected (!?!). Our trees seemed to moan as branches began falling. Some did hit the house, but nothing major happened to our roof. At first light, we began to see the devastation unleashed on our beautiful Hollow. Our doorways were at least partially blocked and our driveway was impenetrable. Branches continued to fall well into the afternoon and the next day falling ice sounded like muffled gunshots.

Liner Notes:

Inversions are elevation and location based. People in the upper portions of Stevenson experienced very little ice – same for those just outside of town. One City employee called Shippy Hollow “Ground Zero” for this event – which makes sense considering that we are one of the lowest elevations in the area.

The music is my naïve and humble homage to the genre of “Horror” music. In my homage, I failed to realize how tongue in cheek it had become. When Pat watched the video, she began chuckling and even had to explain to me that it was the music. Now (again, in hindsight) I hear it, too - so it’s OK to chuckle at the music. I guess.

The pics are terrible. They are terrible technically and visually, but they’re all I gots…. In my defense, it really was hard to find any beauty in the midst of all the destruction. OK – I guess I’ve drilled that point into the ground. Let it go, Jeff – let it go…