Man, I hate winter.

We just got pummeled with an ice storm this past week that left thousands in our area without power for whole stretches of time...

These are some of the pictures that I took during and after that storm....

Let me just start off by saying that even under the best of circumstances, those being that winter brings with it only an average amount of snowfall and average temperatures, I can't STAND it! And that is putting it mildly. Been that way since birth. I find it ironic, not to mention mildly hysterical that I was born in Maine. The fact hasn't been lost on me that I really have no room to gripe too much, since up there in Oswego, New York they have had something like 11 or 12 feet of snow in the span of about a week give or take....Let me just say right now, that if I lived there, I would probably want to slit my throat right about now, that is how much I despise wintertime...heheh. Kind of contradictory for me to say that, since I want to fight tooth and nail to keep living in the face of this melanoma crap for a looong, LOOOONG time, but I digress....

Winter just always gets me down. Way, waaaay down. In the dumps, that is. That is, when it isn't enraging me and burning me out even in its most average form. Just can't take the cold. I literally feel like I am having convulsions whenever I start shivering, that is how severely I shake...Wouldn't be surprised if I have numerous contusions on my brain after all the shivering and tooth chattering I have been doing this winter, either...It has been brutally cold, relatively speaking and IMHO, around here this winter. I can't believe I have actually been whooping and cheering when the weather calls for temps that are actually near freezing....

I defintely have questioned the very real possibility that I may have seasonal affective disorder....No exaggeration. I would kill right now for a little color.

Anyway, back to this ice storm.

Our poor magnolia tree. It took a severe beating from this storm, as so many other trees have. I know I am a complete whack job lately, but I literally burst into tears when Ed got me out of bed to come look at it outside our front window....

All the branches were covered in ice. Every single leaf....the weight caused half a dozen big branches to break off and about 4 feet broke off the top. This tree has special meaning to me for several reasons, the most meaningful being that Ed and I picked it out and planted it together the summer right after we got married. Another being that this tree has survived some major adversity: a couple very dry summers where water was rationed and a couple other brutal winters, the worst being back in 2003 when we had snow totals of over three feet in just a couple weeks. It almost died, but it didn't. It has become symbolic.

No lie, but as much as I hate the cold, I was outside trying to break as much ice off of those leaves as I could, just to take some of the weight off this poor tree. It broke my heart. I know, what did I tell ya....a whack job, I am.

This is another picture that I took of our street. Looks like an arctic tundra. Lord. We live halfway down the coast. It's not as if we live in Carabou, Maine. Freaky. But I will try to keep my moaning and groaning in check, since, there again, those poor folks in upstate New York are dealing with such obscene amounts of snow right now.

It is beautiful though, I will give it that....

An ice storm bathes everyting in its path in a sheet of ice. Completely encased. It definitely can be beautiful to look at, but tragic in its destruction of trees, power lines, etc. Not to mention damned dangerous to travel during and afterward.

This last one I took later on when the sun came out and lit everything up. The picture doesn't do it justice. Everything was sparkling like it had a coating of crystal. Amazing. Breathtaking.

Hey, that is what I will keep telling myself. Eventually, the sun always comes out and lights things up. Even the worst things don't last, and nothing, not even a bad mood, can last forever.