Why Am I Up at 2:00 AM, You Ask?

So, here I am, at 2:00 worrying about whether or not I will have to call the insurance company in the morning.

Yesterday morning (Thursday) I woke up to a nice, rain storm. Well, around noon, it changed to freezing rain and hasn't stopped since. See, St. Louis has been hit with a winter storm and it's been freezing raining all day long which leaves a nice, beautiful, thick coat of ice on EVERYTHING. Once the freezing rain stops, a nice, healthy snow is supposed to fall. Keep this in mind.

For those of you that don't know me, I bought the house I grew up in after my brother lived here for 5 years. My parents moved to a new house in 2001 and I moved with them originally. They were able to keep the house I grew up in and they "sold" it to my brother. He actually rented with an option to buy. Anyway, my mom was at a point where she wanted it out of her and my dad's name...so they decided to sell. Since I'm a sentimental sap, I told her I'd buy it. It's closer to work, I grew up in the house and loved the house, it's the perfect starter home, I had 23 years to think of things I wanted to do with it and it has a great yard. So...on May 31, 2006, I closed on the house and it was all mine. Remind me to tell you about the move later, that's a whole other chaotic mess of a story.

Well, at about 1:30 this morning, I was awoken from a sound sleep by a crashing sound. I laid in bed for a few minutes thinking, "okay, what the hell was that?" I'm home alone (from October 29 - January 3) and I was afraid to go outside by myself at first. Well, after Beanie barked her head off for a few minutes, I gained the courage to wonder around the house to see what was damaged. The first thing I checked was our 6' privacy fence - it's in major disrepair and J and I are saving up to get a new one (about a 1/4 of the fence is down anyway). I thought for sure it blew over and took out the neighbor's fence as well. But, no, that wasn't it. So, I didn't really know what else to check, so I looked out at the huge Maple tree my neighbor has in the front corner of his back yard. This tree hangs over my house, a portion of my backyard (with the overhead electric, cable and phone lines) and parts of my driveway (where J's car is currently sitting). Sho' 'nuf, 4 HUMONGOUS branches (about 8" in diameter and about 12' long) fell from his tree and took out my privacy fence on that side and his cable & phone lines. I was just happy it didn't take out my cable lines - I'd die without cable. :0) Well, now I can't sleep because I keep thinking another monstrous branch will fall, but on J's car this time...or my kitchen...I'm freaking out here.

My parents had this same tree cut back before (can you believe it's my responsibility to do so if the tree is still alive????). I'm guessing it's not exactly the healthiest tree in the world since it's balking under the weight of the ice. Ugh. I'm so nervous.

Then, I thought I better check my work website to see what's going on since I work at the local electric company. I am aware of the damage that ice can cause power lines - again, sho' 'nuf, 200,000+ people without power. This is one reason I hate working for the electric company. It has to be pretty bad outside for them to call off work...but, I'm nonessential (meaning I don't work in the Call Center or in the field), so I would think they could call off the nonessential employees. God, I hope; I'm gonna be a mess tomorrow without any sleep. I don't have any vacation left (2 weeks goes by unbelievably fast) and I don't want to take a day without pay. I'm guessing the streets are completely covered in ice since the trees and every other stationary object is covered with a thick layer of ice. Pray for me guys. I really don't want to take my life in my hands by driving into work tomorrow, not to mention what is normally a 15-minute drive will turn into a 1 1/2 hour drive and I'm not patient enough for that nonsense.

My lights are now flickering, so I'm just guessing my power is about to go out...I just hope it's not my service lines (which are always the last to be repaired since it is a single outage)!!!! Man, what a lovely night.

So, now you know the 20 different reasons why I'm awake at 2:00 AM.

"Now you know dat"

Update: Yeah, as the sun came up, I went outside and it isn't too bad. But, there are still several HUGE branches in my yard, a few of the boards of my fence were ruined and my neighbor's power lines are in the backyard - which means I have to take Beanie out to go potty on a leash. I'm sure it will take days to get his lines back up since it's a single outage. Poor guy.
Oh and I just woke up from a couple hours of sleep. It was nice. I haven't tried to venture out on the roads yet, I figure I'll let people who HAVE to be out go out.

Here are some pics:

See the ice on the trees? The above picture is the lovely tree that lost many of its branches in our yard.

This last picture is of the downed power lines in my backyard - notice the lovely pond underneath the downed lines. I'm watching Beanie closely.