Yard is cleared.

I came home from lunch and the city has already been by and picked up the downed limbs I had moved out my driveway. Timely and efficient, it's nice change.

Driveway is clear.

Greater devastation existed in my driveway than I had originally thought. The top fell out of the tree on the west side of my driveway. As it fell, it took out three sizeable limbs beneath it on the north east side. It only took a half hour to get it all moved and the ice scooped off. Very little snow to speak of. It doesn't appear we will receive as much as forecast though 1-2 inches of snow is expected during the day. Flakes have started falling, but only time will tell if it will be a significant snow shower.

Driveway Devastation.

FLASH! stop Tree limb down. stop Ice encrusted. stop Partially blocks driveway. stop Possible impediment to arriving at work tomorrow. stop FLASH!

Snapping trees.

So all day long it has been around freezing and drizzling. The trees are coated with a 3/4 inch cover of ice and started snapping this morning. The wind picked up at 3:00 this afternoon and the problems compounded. It is hard to get around on the roads right now for all the trees in the road and utility crews blocking roads to repair downed power lines. A large tree in front of my house lost a branch while I was cooking supper. Thankfully the city crews got it cleared from the road in about 15 minutes. I just heard another large snap farther down the road. Hopefully it hit an empty spot and not someone's house.

I might get a new camera for Christmas.

It's a possibility. We'll just have to see. My mom was wanting to buy me a new one and I told her the ones I was interested in were upward of 1500 dollars and she quickly balked. I laughed b/c I know it's out of both our price range. I told her I hadn't started saving for one because I just haven't been taking enough pictures to justify the cost and my proficiency just isn't there yet either. But we talked about it and I may get a P&S/DSLR hybrid. Something on the way to DSLR, but not quite. The nice thing about the hybrids is the wealth of features and (in comparison) the minuscule cost. So we'll see.