Community Chat

[wismiss]

Well, Day 2 of this blizzard of 2011 here in Central Illinois. Still have the winds that are howling and blowing. The windsocks are straight out and the male cardinal was trying to feed at one of the bird feeders, but was getting blown around and gave up.

Anyway, we are grateful that we have not lost our electricity, and hopefully will not lose it today. Lights flickered about 3 times and things were off for about a minute a couple of those times, but then came back on.

However, about 11:00 last night, the furnace wasn't working and the house was getting cold. So, we changed the batteries in the thermostat and that didn't help. So, my husband had to go outside.

We have a high efficiency furnace that does not use the chimney, but has two pipes--an inlet pipe and an exhaust pipe. Both pipes had gotten plugged with snow because of the direction the wind was blowing. So, my husband had to take a stick and had to unplug the pipes. Then the furnace worked. So, if your furnace stops working and you have the outside pipes, you might want to check those. We have never had that happen before but there was just the right combination of snow/sleet/ice and wind direction.

Stay safe today until this terrible storm blows over. We have some major interstates closed and cars are not allowed to get on them. The sun is shining this morning, but it is treacherously cold. So, in many ways this is just as serious as yesterday, if not more so because of the plunging temperatures.

Keep safe, keep warm, and if you must be out, drive carefully and take extra blankets with you in case you get stranded somewhere.

Won't it be wonderful when life goes back to "normal"?