That was a great movie…remember? Did you see it, The Ice Storm? I don’t know, like ten years ago it came out…it was very good. A little depressing, very illuminating. There was a lot of dysfunctional family stuff, a key party and a dead hobbit. (Elijah Wood – trust me, I’m trying to have some fun with an otherwise depressing situation.)

Anyway, excellent independent films aside, we had a seriously kick ass ice storm in Northern Dutchess last night. Power went out around 8, and will probably be out for a couple of days due to county-wide problems, but if you put aside the difficulties of a power outage in late 2008, you can really marvel at the wonders of nature.

Seriously.

So power went out around 8pm last night. This morning around 6:30am we, as a family, took a ride to the local Stewart’s for coffee, donuts, gas and gossip. Damn. Most of the county is without electricity. Eeek.

So we decided to head up to the in-laws in Massachusetts and enjoy some hot water bathing until the power at home is restored. On the way we experienced a rather amazing slalom amongst the hundreds (literally) of bent, ice-encrusted trees. Pretty cool.

Here’s the thing, though…while many people on the road were being conscientious and cautious, there were a couple of cowboys who are nothing short of big-time a-holes. I’m not even talking about SUV-lovin’ maniacs, but, in this case, schmucks in little 2-wheel drive sports cars, burning up the eight foot wide path of messy road, tailgating and flashing and honking, when people were just trying to safely make it to the next bunch of fallen trees.

Seriously people, I have witnessed quite a few mega winter storm is my 18 or so years of driving and this was a truly unique situation. I’ve seen much worse driving conditions, snow and slush covered roads in particular, but I’ve NEVER seen anything liek this with the fallen and falling ice covered trees. I mentioned to Carol on our way to Massachusetts that in the worst storms I’ve encountered up until today, you see one or two fallen trees and go “Wow, that’s somethin’ else.” Today…no lie…I saw HUNDREDS of these same fallen trees. Amazing.

And still, there were those people in their little cars, steaming up my backside like they have something REALLY important to tend to. Like the free world depends on their arrival…somewhere. Like they have massive  Plantar Fasciitis and if they don’t get to the Podiatrist soon it their f-ing feet will fall off.

Seriously, dudes. Today Mother Nature said, “Hey, pay me some f-ing attention. I can do shit you’ve never imagined.” We need to chill, step back and pay her the awe she deserves. She can be truly staggering.