ice - not so nice

Thursday night, we saw nothing but rain in Burlington. Everywhere to the north, people saw rain too - unfortunately, with the temperatures below freezing, the rain froze over just about everything. Apparently, that was enough to bring down a cr@pload of trees, some of which hit the power lines.

My parents lost power for about 30 hours, which is not the most convenient thing when you're living in a house with electric heat. Kenny and Laureen, who live in New Hampshire, still don't have power. Their house dipped to 37 degrees, a little too close to "pipes bursting and other bad things happening" point. I gave them my parents' kerosene heater, which worked well - until the kerosene ran out. We then found that it is illegal to stock kerosene in Massachusetts stores. Who knew. Not surprisingly, almost all the places around New Hampshire are out of kerosene. And generators. And heaters.