Excuse me while I dodge this pine tree

I had to head to the office in Western Mass yesterday for two meetings. How did they go? Oh, they were both cancelled by the time I arrived after 2 hours and 15 mins of dodging pine trees and birch remains on the road from the now famous Ice Storm of '08.

We were very fortunate because we never lost power at our house, but only 5 miles up the road in NH there are still homes in the dark, trees in the road, and power lines scattered about. We lost a tree in our backyard, but now we have some extra firewood this season. Anyone know how long wood needs to dry out before you can burn it?


But what amazed me on the drive West was that so many areas looked like they had been cleared to build new homes - the fact that mother nature could spin her fury and snap huge branches like twigs was amazing. Of course my state-of-the-art Blackberry doesn't have a camera so I couldn't grab any pictures on the way out, but imagine the Jolly Green Giant came to town and just started plucking the heads of trees off like the ends of green beans. It was amazing.

My heart goes out to all the families in hotel rooms or cold homes right before the holidays. If you drive South a few miles you'd never know we had trees covered in ice, touching the ground from the weight - but take my word for it - it is quite a mess up here in the Merrimack Valley and Southern NH.