Sunday, January 14, 2007
Bad weather, reminded of some bad times
Boy! The house seems especially quiet here today.
The Daughter that lives next door is off to another
state to attend a wedding for her future sister-in-law.
Left early yesterday morning , cominbg home tomorrow,
It`s funny why it makes such a difference to me here
at home when there is noone in the house next door.
I am used to living alone as have been alone since
July 2002 when I lost my wonderful husband. But it
gives me more peace of mind knowing a daughter is
next door. I only notice it when she is gone for more than
a couple days. Part of the worry this time is because we are having an ice storm which is supposed to be worse Monday when I am expecting them to be driving home. I am hoping they decide to wait another night and come home on Tuesday
when the weather and driving is supposed to be good.
I also have another Therapy session tomorrow afternoon and
my oldest Daughter is driving me there. If the roads are too icy,
I will cancel my apt. so she won`t need to drive.
I just let sassy out and had to yank on her chain to loosen it from the ice before she could get down from the porch. It was already frozen to the steps and ground.
This icy condition reminded me of the winter storm we had back in 1994 when we thought we had the flu, which turned out to be carbon monoxide poisioning from our fuel oil furnace. Walt went into the Hospital and shortly after arriving there he went into a coma. The Dr wanted to also put me in bed, but I refused to leave Walt`s bedside. So then the Dr ordered the Nurses to set up one of those chairs (that go into a bed ) in the waiting room for me to lie down on. He insisted on two pillows to raise my head so I could breath easier, plus extra blankets as I was feeling very cold at the time. I tried a couple of times, but I got so worried that I just ended up back in Walt`s Hospital room with him.
Well, after a few days Walt came out of the coma and started doing ok. When he first saw me he thought I was an Angel standing by the window. You see, he said he thought I had died on the couch since I hadn`t moved for two days. He said he couldn`t understand why none of the kids noticed when they stopped in.
Then my Dr told my daughters to take me home for a nights rest. All this time Walt and I had thought we had the Flu. We had attended my younger brother`s Funeral while feeling so sick. We were also going to my brother`s home to help his wife and kids. We worried about giving them the flu, but when you are needed this badly, you do what you need to do to help. It was a few days after the Funeral when I awoke on the couch feeling like something was wrong. So, I dragged myself to the bedroom and found Walt in a semi-conscious condition. I had heard a sons car starting at my Daughters home, so I hurried to the door , yelled to him to get his sister , that I needed them fast. We called the Ambulance for Walt and I rode to the Hosp with my kids, and once we reached the hospital, my daughter phoned all the other kids to meet us there. Noone expected Walt to make it thru the night, and the Dr`s were baffled on what was wrong with him. As they said, just the Flu wouldn`t cause the coma condition. I was so sick that I forgot I was worrying about the furnace before we got so sick. Carbon Monoxide poisioning makes you unable to think straight or remember anything. Everything was like a blur as far as thinking went.
Well, after Walt was doing ok, that first night that I came home for the night, one daughter remained at the Hospital to check on her Dad for me, while the other Daughter came to spend the night with me. The next morning the Daughter with me woke up with a splinting headache. She told me she had some mighty bad migranes, but nothing like this. Thats when my mind cleared enough to remember that I had been arguing with Walt over the furnace before we go so sick. I told him the furnace didn`t sound right. He insisted it was ok. But, I was the one in the house all day so I knew the furnace sounds better than he did. Well, after my daughter mentioned her headache, I called one of my sons to come help me open the furnace door so I could check on it. Well, I actually asked him to go check it as I didn`t think I could safely walk down the cellar stairs. I had tried checking on the furnace before, but when the door catch broke, Walt wired it shut and with my arthritis I couldn`t undo the twisted wire. My son came back up and told me I needed to see the furnace, so he walked in front of me and with my hands on his shoulders for support, I managed to get down cellar.
WOW!! There was thick soot covering everything inside and just a small opening left to look in thru. It`s a wonder we weren`t both dead , it was that bad. I called our furnace man to come clean and adjust the furnace. I will never forget what he said to me when he arrived. He said " I just missed the end of the movie I was watching. I better be back in time to see the other Movie." I wanted to kick him out of my house, but I didn`t have a choice as the furnace had to be taken care of immediately. After that, Walt had someomne clean and adjust the furnace every year, even after we ended up buying a new Furnace the following winter. The Furnace we had owned first was one I learned how to adjust the nozzle and how to measure and set the firing and fuel joints real well. But that second furnace I never did learn about. Must admit that I also never learned the settings for the newest one either and am still using this one. We had bought three furnaces over the years. Today I not only have the fire detectors everywhere, but also two carbon monoxide detectors, one near the heat register that is closest to the furnace, but also one in the kitchen near my gas stove.
Well, to get back to the sleet storm that year, we had about 3 inches of ice, covered by about 4-6 inches of snow, which was covered with about 4 more inches of ice and lots more snow over that. The third day after that I thought I felt good enough to start driving myself to the hospital, but I couldn`t open my garage doors. So, after a Daughter drove me to the hospital, my youngest son and one of my nephews used a pick axe and a tree chopping type axe and chopped all that ice in front of my garage plus enough from my driveway for me to be able to get my car out of the garage and yard. Was a lot of chopping to open up the two 4 foot wide doors all the way out so my car could back out. That was our last bad ice storm.
It is still hailing out right now and freezing on the road and driveway as soon as it hits. They say it will get lots worse tonight and tomorrow. I keep hoping the weather report is wrong. It sometimes looks like the sleet might be going to change to snow for a while. Just hoping not like it did back in 1994-- first sleet, covered by snow, covered by more ice and still more snow. We sure don`t need another bad storm like that one where everything closed up and you were told to stay off the dangerous roads.
Just let sassy out again and now the snow is gone and it is back with freezing rain. There is just a thin coating of snow over the origional ice. but now forming ice over the snow. I thought everything had stopped as you couldn`t see the freezing rain thru the window.
More to worry about. Two of my sisters just dropped by. The youngest wanted to let me know she was going back home with our oldest sister and will be gone till some time in March. I`m sure going to miss the yopunger sister as she is the one I see the most of. The youngest lost her husband 2 years ago from an accident and the oldest just lost her Husband this past year, so this is her first winter alone. I know it is good for them both to spend the winter together. My worry is that they are planning on driving the 3-4 hours tomorrow in the bad weather.
I am hoping they decide to wait till Tuesday to leave.
It is changing to half snow and half sleet right now. Guess it still hasn`t made up it`s mind yet. It was just about a week later than this in the Jan. `94 storm. My bro passed away on Jan. 16th and the storm was shortly after that date- 11 yrs ago this month since that last real bad one. We have had a lot of bad storms during those yrs, but just not one that went from sleet, to snow, to sleet and back to snow again all in the same storm.
The Daughter that lives next door is off to another
state to attend a wedding for her future sister-in-law.
Left early yesterday morning , cominbg home tomorrow,
It`s funny why it makes such a difference to me here
at home when there is noone in the house next door.
I am used to living alone as have been alone since
July 2002 when I lost my wonderful husband. But it
gives me more peace of mind knowing a daughter is
next door. I only notice it when she is gone for more than
a couple days. Part of the worry this time is because we are having an ice storm which is supposed to be worse Monday when I am expecting them to be driving home. I am hoping they decide to wait another night and come home on Tuesday
when the weather and driving is supposed to be good.
I also have another Therapy session tomorrow afternoon and
my oldest Daughter is driving me there. If the roads are too icy,
I will cancel my apt. so she won`t need to drive.
I just let sassy out and had to yank on her chain to loosen it from the ice before she could get down from the porch. It was already frozen to the steps and ground.
This icy condition reminded me of the winter storm we had back in 1994 when we thought we had the flu, which turned out to be carbon monoxide poisioning from our fuel oil furnace. Walt went into the Hospital and shortly after arriving there he went into a coma. The Dr wanted to also put me in bed, but I refused to leave Walt`s bedside. So then the Dr ordered the Nurses to set up one of those chairs (that go into a bed ) in the waiting room for me to lie down on. He insisted on two pillows to raise my head so I could breath easier, plus extra blankets as I was feeling very cold at the time. I tried a couple of times, but I got so worried that I just ended up back in Walt`s Hospital room with him.
Well, after a few days Walt came out of the coma and started doing ok. When he first saw me he thought I was an Angel standing by the window. You see, he said he thought I had died on the couch since I hadn`t moved for two days. He said he couldn`t understand why none of the kids noticed when they stopped in.
Then my Dr told my daughters to take me home for a nights rest. All this time Walt and I had thought we had the Flu. We had attended my younger brother`s Funeral while feeling so sick. We were also going to my brother`s home to help his wife and kids. We worried about giving them the flu, but when you are needed this badly, you do what you need to do to help. It was a few days after the Funeral when I awoke on the couch feeling like something was wrong. So, I dragged myself to the bedroom and found Walt in a semi-conscious condition. I had heard a sons car starting at my Daughters home, so I hurried to the door , yelled to him to get his sister , that I needed them fast. We called the Ambulance for Walt and I rode to the Hosp with my kids, and once we reached the hospital, my daughter phoned all the other kids to meet us there. Noone expected Walt to make it thru the night, and the Dr`s were baffled on what was wrong with him. As they said, just the Flu wouldn`t cause the coma condition. I was so sick that I forgot I was worrying about the furnace before we got so sick. Carbon Monoxide poisioning makes you unable to think straight or remember anything. Everything was like a blur as far as thinking went.
Well, after Walt was doing ok, that first night that I came home for the night, one daughter remained at the Hospital to check on her Dad for me, while the other Daughter came to spend the night with me. The next morning the Daughter with me woke up with a splinting headache. She told me she had some mighty bad migranes, but nothing like this. Thats when my mind cleared enough to remember that I had been arguing with Walt over the furnace before we go so sick. I told him the furnace didn`t sound right. He insisted it was ok. But, I was the one in the house all day so I knew the furnace sounds better than he did. Well, after my daughter mentioned her headache, I called one of my sons to come help me open the furnace door so I could check on it. Well, I actually asked him to go check it as I didn`t think I could safely walk down the cellar stairs. I had tried checking on the furnace before, but when the door catch broke, Walt wired it shut and with my arthritis I couldn`t undo the twisted wire. My son came back up and told me I needed to see the furnace, so he walked in front of me and with my hands on his shoulders for support, I managed to get down cellar.
WOW!! There was thick soot covering everything inside and just a small opening left to look in thru. It`s a wonder we weren`t both dead , it was that bad. I called our furnace man to come clean and adjust the furnace. I will never forget what he said to me when he arrived. He said " I just missed the end of the movie I was watching. I better be back in time to see the other Movie." I wanted to kick him out of my house, but I didn`t have a choice as the furnace had to be taken care of immediately. After that, Walt had someomne clean and adjust the furnace every year, even after we ended up buying a new Furnace the following winter. The Furnace we had owned first was one I learned how to adjust the nozzle and how to measure and set the firing and fuel joints real well. But that second furnace I never did learn about. Must admit that I also never learned the settings for the newest one either and am still using this one. We had bought three furnaces over the years. Today I not only have the fire detectors everywhere, but also two carbon monoxide detectors, one near the heat register that is closest to the furnace, but also one in the kitchen near my gas stove.
Well, to get back to the sleet storm that year, we had about 3 inches of ice, covered by about 4-6 inches of snow, which was covered with about 4 more inches of ice and lots more snow over that. The third day after that I thought I felt good enough to start driving myself to the hospital, but I couldn`t open my garage doors. So, after a Daughter drove me to the hospital, my youngest son and one of my nephews used a pick axe and a tree chopping type axe and chopped all that ice in front of my garage plus enough from my driveway for me to be able to get my car out of the garage and yard. Was a lot of chopping to open up the two 4 foot wide doors all the way out so my car could back out. That was our last bad ice storm.
It is still hailing out right now and freezing on the road and driveway as soon as it hits. They say it will get lots worse tonight and tomorrow. I keep hoping the weather report is wrong. It sometimes looks like the sleet might be going to change to snow for a while. Just hoping not like it did back in 1994-- first sleet, covered by snow, covered by more ice and still more snow. We sure don`t need another bad storm like that one where everything closed up and you were told to stay off the dangerous roads.
Just let sassy out again and now the snow is gone and it is back with freezing rain. There is just a thin coating of snow over the origional ice. but now forming ice over the snow. I thought everything had stopped as you couldn`t see the freezing rain thru the window.
More to worry about. Two of my sisters just dropped by. The youngest wanted to let me know she was going back home with our oldest sister and will be gone till some time in March. I`m sure going to miss the yopunger sister as she is the one I see the most of. The youngest lost her husband 2 years ago from an accident and the oldest just lost her Husband this past year, so this is her first winter alone. I know it is good for them both to spend the winter together. My worry is that they are planning on driving the 3-4 hours tomorrow in the bad weather.
I am hoping they decide to wait till Tuesday to leave.
It is changing to half snow and half sleet right now. Guess it still hasn`t made up it`s mind yet. It was just about a week later than this in the Jan. `94 storm. My bro passed away on Jan. 16th and the storm was shortly after that date- 11 yrs ago this month since that last real bad one. We have had a lot of bad storms during those yrs, but just not one that went from sleet, to snow, to sleet and back to snow again all in the same storm.
# posted by Dotm @ 1/14/2007 04:41:00 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
Dear dot..it was so nice to read this post.I do hope the weather changes.Please don't go out if it is too icy.I remember having a really bad winter in 1981 in chicago.It was the coldest January the wind chill was -80 degrees.Stay inside and be warm.It is so important that your furnace works well and is inspected atleast once a year.take care and have a safe week.
I have learned over the years to do the small things to the furnace to make sure I don;t have problems.
Sometimes we forget that something that has been reliable for years can turn on you when you least expect it.
I now have a high efficient gas furnace and its easier to maintain but still go down every spring and clean it out and add a new filter so its ready for the winter.
The winter have been getting milder here for the last ten years it seems. In fact today was really the first day we have snow.
20 years ago we would be swimming in it by October.
Take care Dot
Sometimes we forget that something that has been reliable for years can turn on you when you least expect it.
I now have a high efficient gas furnace and its easier to maintain but still go down every spring and clean it out and add a new filter so its ready for the winter.
The winter have been getting milder here for the last ten years it seems. In fact today was really the first day we have snow.
20 years ago we would be swimming in it by October.
Take care Dot
Ooh, it sounds really bad. Take care!
I can imagine how worrying it must be for you when you think about your daughter driving in such bad weather. I hope her trip will be ok.
I can imagine how worrying it must be for you when you think about your daughter driving in such bad weather. I hope her trip will be ok.
Hi Starry nights. I did stay inside all day Sundy and Monday. Even canceled my therapy session for Monday. Daughter got home safely before the storm got even worse.
I went to Chicago for a week-end once for a son`s Naval Graduation ceremony years ago. Their ceremony was super. I still get the furnace cleaned and adjusted at the beginning of every winter.
Thanks for stopping by.
I went to Chicago for a week-end once for a son`s Naval Graduation ceremony years ago. Their ceremony was super. I still get the furnace cleaned and adjusted at the beginning of every winter.
Thanks for stopping by.
Same here Walker. I can remember when my Dad would hook his plow onto the front of his car and plow our road before he went to work so we could go to school. I remember having the snow be so deep that we often had wet feet by the time we reached school,from the high snow falling in our boots. I don`t miss those terrible snowy winters, but now I think it feels much colder out without the snow. I tell the kids that it is too cold to snow much so far.
I learned the first furnace so well that I could take the controls apart, clean them, add a new nozel and filters , re-adjust the controls using a ruler to measure them to the 32nd of an inch and the 1/4 inch it needed and put them back into the furnace. I knew the damper settings and all. I felt safer when I knew the furnace, but the second furnace was lots different and my Dad wasn`t still here to teach me that one. After almost dying, we bought a new furnace, but it too is getting old now. It`s about 10 yrs old already.
Now I have the furnace cleaned and adjusted every fall before I even turn it on. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week-end (only one more day till the week-end). But, after retirement do we still have week-ends when all days are alike?
I learned the first furnace so well that I could take the controls apart, clean them, add a new nozel and filters , re-adjust the controls using a ruler to measure them to the 32nd of an inch and the 1/4 inch it needed and put them back into the furnace. I knew the damper settings and all. I felt safer when I knew the furnace, but the second furnace was lots different and my Dad wasn`t still here to teach me that one. After almost dying, we bought a new furnace, but it too is getting old now. It`s about 10 yrs old already.
Now I have the furnace cleaned and adjusted every fall before I even turn it on. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week-end (only one more day till the week-end). But, after retirement do we still have week-ends when all days are alike?
Hi Hillgrandmom, It was a big relief when they arrived safely back home. One son lives further north and was without power for a while, but got it back that night. Some places were without power since Monday, but they say the power should be back for everyone by tonight. Went down to only 7F last night but going a bit warmer tonight.
Thanks for leaving a comment. Hope you are having some nice weather.
Thanks for leaving a comment. Hope you are having some nice weather.
Being down here in New Zealand and living in a city where it hardly EVER snows (3 times in my lifetime), I find it so hard to imagine so much ice and snow.
Course I see it on the telly, and I read about it plenty online at the moment, but what you describe in the '94 storm of all the layers of ice and snow, that sounds surreal to me!
How frightening that year must've been for you all...the weather was bad enough, let alone having such dire problems with your furnace. Thanks goodness it sorted out.
Course I see it on the telly, and I read about it plenty online at the moment, but what you describe in the '94 storm of all the layers of ice and snow, that sounds surreal to me!
How frightening that year must've been for you all...the weather was bad enough, let alone having such dire problems with your furnace. Thanks goodness it sorted out.
Lisa, that was a bad year, but the worst snow storm I lived thru was back in 1955-56 winter. We still lived in the smaller house while building this home and I had to climb up onto a chair to look out the door over the top of the snow. There was just a couple inches of the door that wasn`t covered. that was a bit scarry. I often walked to grade school thru snow up to my knees, so was used to deep snow, but not this much in one storm . Usually it was a few feet at a time so you had time to shovel in between the snow storms. Usually by this time in winter we have snow banks so high you can`t safely see to drive around corners and we just have about an inch on the ground right now. Of course that could change at any time with this weird weather we are having. I think it is still too cold to snow here.
Thanks for stopping by.
Post a Comment
Thanks for stopping by.
<< Home
