You never think...

...you're going to be part of the group whose power doesn't come back on for five days--or more.  Power still isn't restored to our area of New Hampshire.  Unitil, our power company, has the number of outages down to 30,000 from a peak of 75,000, so it's heading in the right direction. 

Before we locked the doors and fled the state, I took a few pics of ice in the trees, a cold sun coming through them, and the only predators bad-ass enough to be out in any numbers when the temps were around 15 degrees F.  The temperature in the house got down to the 40s, and that was with us burning through firewood like financial bailouts go through cash.  We drove through Stratham and Exeter on Saturday and there were trees--whole 60 foot trees!--down in the roads, hundreds of branches everywhere.  We passed houses with every tree in the yard down.  Really sad.

Do I miss California?  Nope.  I love living in New Hampshire.  Yes, it's a little out of the way, an hour from Boston, the weather's sometimes a bit harsh, but it's beautiful country with a beautiful coastline--where the seagulls are so tough, they hang out all winter.  This ice storm and the all the damage in its wake, is the worst I've seen in the six years we've been here. 

Click the pics for full view.  I also posted full sized versions on Flickr

Love this shot.  Two hawks sharing the same transmission tower.  "You take that side, I'll take this.  We'll split the catch."

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