The Ice Storm

Please, do not confuse the title of this post with a fabulous movie starring Kevin Kline and Frodo. The title of this post is referring to the lovely ice storm Columbus, OH endured over the Christmas Holiday. Why don't they name ice storms? They name hurricanes. I think they should name ice storms as well. If they were to name this ice storm I think it should have been "Ice Storm Carrie" or better yet, "Ice Storm Shit on your Christmas". I drove home expecting to cuddle up in my warm bed with my mother baking cookies in the kitchen. Instead, I came home to what looked like a disaster site in the front yard with all the broken tree limbs, my father traveling up and down the stairs to carry water from the sump pump to put into the toilets because there was no running water, my mother trying to make chili by candlelight because of the lack of electricity, and a house that's temperature could have easily been confused with that of Antarctica...or even Martha Stewart. Regardless, we made the best of the situation and Christmas was just as good as always, if not better. My parents seem to argue less when they are away from home. We spent Christmas Eve at my brother's house. He was running off a generator. We spent Christmas day at my other brother's house. He had electricity. I got what I wanted for Christmas...well, except a digital camera. But I think I'll just invest in one of those myself. My father said an interesting thing regarding the power outage. He said that the lack of electricity really brought people together. I suppose that's true...to some degree. My parents still argued just as much as ever. But I did spend less time watching TV and playing on the computer this time around. That resulted in me spending more time with them. Without electricity you sorta focus on other things. There aren't very many distractions. But if there is one thing that I learned from this experience it is this: The Amish are STILL dumb.