As Winter Storm Landon moved out early Friday, my city was getting some national attention as one of the hardest-hit areas. That was definitely true in terms of power outages: at one point Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Division was reporting over 130,000 customers without electricity.
I heard a few people compare this storm to the big ice storm we had here in 1994, but I remember that storm well, as this one was not nearly as bad. We do of course have some unfortunate folks whose homes were damaged by falling tree branches and stuff like that, but the streets were never entirely impassable, and by midday Friday the city was more or less functional again.
For the record, I am indeed among the most fortunate Memphians right now: my electricity never went out. Still tired and a bit jet-lagged from my long trip home Monday and Tuesday, I've been perfectly happy to spend most of the last few days lying around the house like a slug. But Friday afternoon I ventured out to have a look at my rental property over on the other side of Overton Park. I hadn't heard anything from my tenants, and I assumed no news was good news, but the place does have a lot of trees and I wanted to see how they held up under the weight of the ice. I found that quite a few medium-sized branches had fallen to the ground (fortunately, none had hit the building). And a couple of small trees along the side of the house had sagged and were blocking the next-door neighbor's driveway. So I ran back home and grabbed a few tree-trimming tools so I could begin some cleanup work. I was actually grateful to have a bit of physical labor to get my blood flowing again. After a couple of hours I was feeling like I'd rejoined society at least a little bit.
Yesterday morning I went to the river to paddle for the first time since my two Miller's Runs the previous Saturday morning. The temperature was right around the freezing point, but the sun was out and there was very little wind, so it was actually about as nice a day to paddle as one can ask for this time of year. The hardest part was getting my boat off the rack: the tie-down ropes were encased in ice and getting the knots out of them was a real chore. Once that was done I had a boat with icy stalagmites on its deck:
I thawed it all out during a mostly-easy 50-minute paddle.
Yesterday's high was a few degrees above freezing and there was plenty of sunshine. But the ice in the trees endured. Ice-laden trees cause all kinds of problems, but they sure are pretty:
I spent yesterday afternoon doing more cleanup work at the rental property. This morning I was back at the river: when I got there the temperature was around 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was sunny and calm again. All I wanted to accomplish with this weekend's paddling was simply to get the blood moving and maintain some muscle memory; with my next race seven weeks away (Ocean Springs, March 26), I've got plenty of time to put together a good training plan. This morning I paddled a moderate pace for 40 minutes.
By the time I was driving home, the temperature had risen above 40 degrees. The ice up in the trees was melting fast. Little chunks of ice were falling in impressive quantities, making me appreciate just how much ice was up in those branches.
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