Ice storm

Hammy's capture was the good news. The bad news is that yesterday's ice storm did some damage and pointed out some changes that will need to be made in the spring.

First off, the rooftop TV antenna, a pretty big model, was damaged during the ice and wind. It's still on the roof, but the mast is bent, and it doesn't seem likely that it can be fixed. I've got a ham-radio-nut friend who I asked to take a look at a couple of pictures I sent him, to get his opinion. The roof is a 10-in-12, so I've got no business up there, but he climbs small radio towers for a living. I don't doubt he can safely get up there.

It's a good thing I don't watch television anyway because down in the holler here we can't get decent reception without an antenna (or satellite or cable for you modern folks out there). I hate to lose the thing though, because it was a nice model with a rotator, so it was just such a neat toy. I used to dx when I was a teenager, and I always though someday I'd hook it up and play around with it to see what it could do. But with all the distant stations I want to listen to on the Internet now, it's not really necessary. Maybe if we can salvage the parts I'll rebuilt it - this time on the garage roof!

The other big problem is the driveway that slopes down from the street toward the house. The whole lot slopes back to the creek, so there's a good fall for drainage, plus a place for water to go, but the house is in the way! The garage filled with water front-to-back, at least 2 inches deep in the worst spots. It was half-frozen, like a giant garage slushie. I spent an hour and a half today pushing slush and water out with a broom and sweeping it around the corner of the garage and back toward the backyard.

I've had to sweep out the garage three times this week (although not anywhere near this deep before) due to melting slow, but this was the last straw. I'm going to have to get a driveway drain installed to route that water behind the garage to the natural fall in the backyard. I know a lot of people have done those themselves, but I don't have the manpower (or the time probably) to sledgehammer out a section of the driveway. It's time to throw money at it, as my sister would say.