Around this time last year Oklahoma was hit with a serious ice storm. I remember waking up in the duplex with no heat and the sound of trees coated in ice crashing down in the park and on top of cars in their driveways.


(AP Photo/Enid News & Eagle, Paul Rutherford)
This is truly no exaggeration of what everything looked like.

I called Hallie, a co-worker, that lived across the street from me. She still had power but mine was out. We called our boss and were told that the office would be open for business and to try and get into work somehow.


This is what my car looked like that morning. We decided to take Hallie's after her dad made it over to her house to de-ice her car.


Photo credit unknown.
Probably over half the trees in our park were damaged. It probably took a good 6 months of clean up crews to remove all the limbs from everyone's homes and parks. Dead trees are all over the place and Oklahoma didn't really have that many to begin with. The whole event was devastating.

It was like driving through an icepocalypse and all I could think of was the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". We finally made it to work and were told to go home a couple hours later after a tree had crashed into the roof of our CEO's home.

Over the next few days trees kept on falling on power lines and half of Oklahoma was without power. OG&E trucks were everywhere and I considered slipping one of them a $100 bill to work on my side of the street first. Ha! In the meantime I stayed with my sister - her electric lines are buried. When I pulled up to her house the rest of her street was without power but she had every single light in the house on, and the TV displaying Rudolph and her tree lit for everyone to see. I was convinced that the next house I buy should have buried electric lines and that is still on our "to-do" list.

I was without power for a week. Every day I would swing by the duplex - it was freezing, dark and depressing. With my mag light I would find some clothes and take a shower (my water was heated with gas).

So this week we've been threatened with another ice storm.

I say BRING IT ON.

We are armed with a secret weapon.

When our house was being inspected our inspector said that he would need to tell us on our report to disable this antique cast-iron fireplace due to safety hazard. But on the side he told us to keep it functional because in the event of another ice storm it could keep our entire house warm.

We've got goose-down comforters, a cow-hide rug (that can be used as a blanket), candles, a gas fireplace and are within walking distance to friends, food and bars. So c'mon ice storm. Hit us again. I dare you.

(Okay, please don't hit us again but if you do I'm prepared.)

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