Storm Aftermath

Can you see the car?

How about now?

Just snow.

See the shiny? That is ice over the snow.

Now can you see the car?

Smooshed Car port.

Can you see the car from my bedroom window?

That was such a pretty tree.

Smooshed car port with tree.

About 20 min after I took these picture we lost power. It was out for just a few days not bad really. I do keep things on hand for power outages. Lights, camp stove, extra blankets, two warm cats, and if the water is lost I have 5 gallon jugs of water that I keep filled. The only thing I missed was a hot shower. There are still places in the county without power, and they think it might be the middle of the week before it is all on.

We did get about 14 inches in abuot 5 hours. That is a  lot of snow. These picture were taken the day after the storm.

Ursula, Under and Snow

Snow, snow, we have gotten a few inches of snow in the past few days. Not bad really, that is usually all we get in a year. It is here for a day or two, then gone. A wonderful thing. I got a few great pictures of a few inches of snow. Having said that, I really really hope that the weather forecasters are wrong. I really hope that they are wrong. It is now Tuesday morning at 3am by Wednesday night we are to have 14 inches. FOURTEEN INCHES, the papers are saying that the roads should be impassable by tonight. I don't know what that means, does that mean at 4pm or sometime toward midnight?

Oh, well will find that out tonight.

This weekend, I finished Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill. I do not often read fiction that is not fantasy, so the Orange Reading Challenge IS a real challenge for me. What makes it a challenge is that I deal with real life problems at work, and in my free time, I would rather deal with giant bugs eating people, unicorns, dragons, and knights. I did like Ursula, Under.

The book was written in the now, and in the past. Sometime centuries in the past. Each chapter could have been its own short story that led to the outcome of little Ursula. Ursula, running after a deer, falls in a hole and needs to be rescued. Each chapter tells the tale of the ancestors who came before her and the actions that led to her being alive. It is an interesting way to look at what it takes to create a person.

I would recommend this book, to any who are interested in family history, and the possibilities of the past leading to the now.

Quote from page 237..
"It becomes more and more apparent that she is not merely neurotic, eccentric, unpleasantly quirky: it is clear that the queen has gone over the falls in a fragile bark, left the river of sanity, and gone adrift in the open sea."

What Are the Little Things...

What are the little things that get you excited? Get your mind out of the gutter. For some people it is shoes, and I don't get that one but whatever. 

For me it is the first of the new month. It is not that the past month is gone, it is not the changing of time, seasons. It is the library. Each  month on the first or soon after the library gets a paper called the Book Page. I love the Book Page. Each month, it reviews new books, adds for books, and questions from readers/writers.

Each month I pick up my copy of the Book Page and I read every page. There are times that I am not interested in anything that they talk about. More often than not there are at least one or two items that I want to read or look into. Sometime there is a book on every page. There are books listed for everyone, audio books, fiction, non-fiction, kids, and young adult.

If your library offers the Book Page check it out.

First one Done

Duma Key by Steven King. This book is for two reading challenges the TBR and the Whats in a Name 5. For the Whats in a Name challenge a Key is something that is kept in a purse, pocket or backpack.

This is the first King book that I have read in a very long time. When I was a teenager I read him like there was no tomorrow. I read everything he wrote. Then one day I picked up his new and latest release and just could not finish it. I do not know if I had changed, his writing had changed or what. The magic was lost to me.

Last year one of my co-workers gave me Duma Key she wanted to talk to me about the book. Having had lost the magic, I put the book on the shelf and left it there. This is the best Steven King I have read in a long time.

The main character Edgar Freemantle has a accident that almost kills him. To recover he moves to Duam Key. There he meets Wireman, and Elizabeth Eastlake. As he heals he paints, his paintings have the power to heal, kill, and destroy.

I read all 770 pages in about 12 hours. The book had an interesting affect on me. I should explain that when I read the words are not just words. I can see, hear, smell what is on the pages. Each character has a voice, a look, or a little quirk that fits each person. So, when I read a few lines about a picnic basket I could hear the panic in his voice.

This is what I read that freaked me out so much. Italics the authors:
"That basket.
Elizabeth's dammed picnic basket.
It was red."

Wordless Wednesday NOT

Looking through my pictures I realized that I did not have any that I want to share. Guess that means this weekend I get to go out with my camera. WOOHOO a date!

Reading Challenges

So this is the reading challenge post. I signed up to do two this year one I posted about here, this one is the TBR challenge. The other is posted about here.

I have thought about signing up for a few more challenges but then realized that there are some that come up on a monthly basis. The one for January is the Orange Challenge it is hosted by The Magic Lasso. For the Orange Challenge I am going to read Ursula, Under by Ingrid Hill.

I am also going to be doing the Support Your Local Library challenge hosted by Eclectic Bookshelf. The rules are linked here. That is a lot of reading. Woohoo. I had better get started on something.