Just back from my first walk around the neighborhood after “the worst ice storm in twenty years,” as the news reports said. (I remember the one twenty years ago–we lived next to an orchard then, and the branches snapping all night sounded like gunshots. And we had a well in that house, so no heat, no power, no water for the better part of a week. Just no heat and no power this time.) The last two nights, the full moon through all the ice draping the trees was remarkably beautiful, and still today the whole place is glittering. Then there’s the other side of it: branches down everywhere (we lost one big oak branch in the back and the top limbs of a pine by the drive–pretty lucky, all in all), piled by the roadside where the utility crews were pruning them off the wires, some trees just about split through.
Yes, and you’ll be glad when it thaws too.
Yup, we had the winter freakin’ wonderland thing too… No power from 3AM Friday until around 8PM Sat. That storm 20 years ago was in October and here it was more of a heavy wet snow that stuck to the leaves still on the trees. At least the nights weren’t very cold. This time, it went down to around 15deg F, so it got mighty nippy in the house. Luckily the power outage didn’t last as long as last time (5 days)
Today was warmer and breezy, so the 1/2" coating of ice on all the trees started falling down on our house, which was entertaing 
We were out a little longer–10 pm on Thursday through mid-afternoon Sunday. Lowest temp I noticed in the house was about 46 this morning. Glad to escape from a couple of days of breakfast at Friendly’s (though I was very grateful that they were open) and no in-house coffee. Also, I am very much not missing the sounds of the neighborhood generators, like someone mowing the lawn at midnight.
I remember driving through Maine a few years ago in the summer and noticing that all the birches by the side of the road looked like they’d been broken in half. Then I remembered hearing from my sister up there about the ice storm the previous winter. I hate ice storms, we often get a lot of them around here.
We used to get ice storms with some regularity in the South but, at least in Alabama, we’ve been spared any significant ice storms in the last 15 years or so. Maybe 20.
Nothing quite like 'em.