I Hate Ice Storms.

But I'm not going to wet my pants over it. It appears that a blanket of some kind of awful weather is covering the entire state of Oklahoma and here it's trying to start something. It's drizzling and attempting to freeze, except it doesn't feel that cold out. But water freezes, so it's not looking terribly promising.

Just so long as it doesn't repeat last year's fiasco.

Two Decembers ago I was able to identify with any victim of terrible weather when my house was without power for a week. A week in cold, wanky weather. With clear streets, unless they were covered in trees. I can't say it was the worst case scenario - we had the comfort of having a gas water heater (hot showers are awesome) and a fireplace. I also kept vigil with my PSP, charging it in my truck and catching up on podcasts. But there was a stagnant feeling of suck around the house. It also had the perfect timing of occuring during finals week, and the mostly clear streets meant that any excuse out of them was ignored by the many. I can't say I sucked, but I certainly didn't feel like accomplishing anything. I even stopped shaving until I got power back, on some kind of strike that only I understood.

But with that, I learned to survive. I learned that no matter how gross McDonald's breakfast is, it isn't half bad when you can't cook food. I learned that a stock of firelogs is always a good thing. I learned how to read. I learned how to hit the toilet bowl in the dark. I grew.

So this impending weather isn't as much of a worry on my mind, so long as I have power or the streets are clear. That, and Oklahoma goes from 20 degrees to 60 degrees every three days, so I imagine this will clear up in a couple days. I have firewood (retrieved from the fallen trees in my yard from the ice storm), food, a generator, and a bunch of blankets. If the roads ice up, I'm not going to school. I'm more upbeat about it because I've already been to hell.

Bring it on.

-C.