Friday, February 17, 2006

Day 8: Oh, my!

What a weird day today. I woke up to strange, unnerving sounds. It sounded like something fell in the house. I first though that the medicine cabinet in the bathroom fell off and all of their contents clinked and shattered into the sinks or floor tiles. Alarmed, I ran out of bed but (thankfully) everything seemed in order in the bathroom. I checked the linen closet, the other bedrooms, made my way downstairs and checked the living room and kitchen, the laundry room, garage and even the basement. Nothing seemed out of place.

Oh, there it goes again! I'm not crazy I thought to myself, it sounds like something is falling. Just then I turned around and looked out the patio door and saw the trees and powerlines swinging violently and shaking free all the icicles formed by the night's freezing rain. All those icicles (not big ones, but still a good 3 inches long) were thrown against the house and windows causing the mysterious clinking sounds. Not long after, the power went out (so no tv, music, olympics or surfing all day...I don't think I would fare so well in the 1800s!).

Back upstairs, I peaked out the front windows and noticed all the little broken branches strewn about our front yard and then I noticed that one of our trees snapped like a twig and fell into our driveway (see picture). Isn't that nuts? I mean it's not a hurricane or anything but we live in the north far away from hurricane territory and it's winter for crying out loud!

News reports noted 110km/h winds. A highway in the city was closed because windows on buildings shattered onto the road. Another highway was closed due to a car accident involving 6 vehicules. Worse still, one of the highways east of us was closed due to a 60 (yes you read that right) car pile up! WTF?

Everything seems mostly back to normal here now: the power is back, the wind has died down and it's time to focus on the knitting cause the timer is now definately yellow (and it's starting to freak me out). I am an inch away from the armhole shaping on the sweater's second front and I think I can reasonably expect to finish it tonight. Before moving on to the sleeves, I think I'll knit the 242 stitch ribbed collar. It's the wild card in my project. It could take a few hours or a few days. Guess I'll find out this weekend! Here's the progress so far (notice how it's timer color coded - what a geek!)
Happy knitting (and stay safe)!

9 comments:

  1. Holy nutness batman! I'm glad everything in your house is in order, and that you all faired the storm safely. Last night I said to my husband "Hon, do you hear that?" and he said "What?" I said "Well, it kinda sounds like thunder," so he went upstairs to check the kids and check out the house, etc.; As it turns out, it was thunder. We had a full blown thunderstorm here last night ... thunder, lightning, rain, wind, the whole nine yards and it's February, whats with that?!?!

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  2. Glad there wasn't any serious damage to your house. We have had really high winds here too (which I really don't like) and it's supposed to be 4 degrees above on Sat/Sun. Anny is such a big help with the blogger questions! Do you think Canadian hockey is going to beat the Americans? My husband told me to ask...I really don't know what's going on. I love the snowboarding...those guys are awesome! My mom called the other day and left a message wanting to know if I had a little broom; she had the tea kettle. Fearing that my mom had finally cracked I called her back. Here, she had been watching a little too much Curling with my dad and they thought it was really interesting and really weird! Sorry so long!

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  3. Look at you motoring along on your Olympic knitting!!

    I heard about your weather. We didn't get freezing rain but southern Ontario had some nasty stuff too. We got a dumping of snow instead - maybe 12 inches. My uncle just came and cleared out my driveway with his front-end loader, bless him. ;) Good thing I didn't have anywhere to go today.

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  4. We are getting those high winds right now as I type this...and we got rain this afternoon and the roads and things are getting icy. There are a few flurries flying around but nothing that would amount to anything at all...yet.

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  5. We got the really high winds here in New England yesterday. You guys always seem to send "stuff" our way, LOL. Thank goodness no trees came down tho... but I was expecting it. I'm almost to the shoulders on my vest. No pictures until I bind off. Then it's dealing with the steeks... whoa nellie!

    Keep warm & dry and knitting to the finish line.

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  6. Your making great progress! I think your idea about the ribbing is a good one. I'm finishing off a sweater for a customer and have 135 sts on each side of the sweater in 2,2 ribbing and after 2 1/2" I have to increase to 3,3 ribbing around the top for the collar and rib till 7 1/2". Very boring. At least the yarn is varigated so you can tell your actually making progress.

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  7. Anonymous12:08 a.m.

    You are right on track! Good for you!

    Thank God for that little timer to remind me we are halfway through the Olympics. Made me pick up the needles tonight!

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  8. Anonymous11:09 a.m.

    These high winds sound very dangerous and definitely scary - I sure hope that the weather over there has calmed down now, it'd be high time for spring to come, no?
    Congrats to your progress on your Olympic project, you're doing such a great job with it! Have fun knitting and best wishes from Austria!

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  9. Love your blog. That's a really beautiful photo of your house, despite the broken tree. You must be in Ontario too, as we had that terrible wind and also heard some thunder..... Keep on Knitting....

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