Always Be Prepared

Memphis is in a flurry of excitement and anxiousness. At this time we are now under an Ice Storm Warning. Mention ice and natives will start rolling their eyes and recalling the year 94 and the lovely ice storm we endured. I was 9 at the time so I don't really remember too much, other than we were without power for a long time, my grandparents lost a bunch of trees, and it was really really cold.

Yesterday I was reading the Memphisweather.net blog and he mentioned that it was 70 degrees the day before the ice storm in 94. It was 75 yesterday. That was all it took for me to flip into winter-preparedness mode.

My yankee husband's family rolls their eyes and scoffs at Memphis and their tendency to freak out at any winter weather event. I'll admit that it can be a little much and unnecessary at times. But when there is ice involved I do not mess around.

So I spent the better part of the last 24 hours thinking and preparing for our impending doom storm. Scoff all you want, but when you lose power for 10 days and run out of food don't come crying to me.

I've got a cooler on the front porch with dry ice ready to move to the freezer if we lose power. I've roasted a weeks' worth of coffee beans (I'll grind them tomorrow). Made the Kroger run at 8:30 this morning to stock up on the essentials (bananas, rotel, nutella, and ginger ale naturally). Run the dishwasher and cleaned clothes and towels. I'm feeling pretty good at this point.

My main concern is losing the contents of my beautifully stocked freezer. Gallons of precious stock (chicken, duck, and turkey varieties!), lasagna, various cuts of meat, bags of bolognese, and individual servings of soups from the last year. Sigh... Hopefully the dry ice will help preserve many things. We have gas so I should be able to cook the sauces and heat up soups to eat off for a couple of days.

So... here we are. On the cusp of a much anticipated and talked about ice storm. I hope that this storm is not as strong as weather experts are predicting. Yet at the same time a part of me wishes those that scoff learn to respect the Memphis winter. Only time will tell...

Stay warm out there.