It's been raining, off and on, since about 2 this morning. We're under an ice storm warning until 4, tomorrow morning. So, YIKES!!

So there it remained. Maybe in the Spring......

...is those aliens came from across the galaxy to show us how to move heavy rocks around, and nobody thought it would be a good idea to at least leave a diagram or something.

Can you imagine those jerks?

“Hey, let’s visit a planet dozens of light years away?”

“And do what?”

“Move a bunch of really big rocks around. It’ll mess with their heads for centuries!”

“Yeah, uhm, how about you go and tell me what it was like when you get back, okay?”

I was able to visit Stonehenge, and stand right in the center, before they cordoned it off. People could wander the whole site. It is pretty mind blowing to see, up close and personal. I suspect wizardly works were employed in its construction.

Among the nearest lodging to Stonehenge is the Antrobus Arms near Amesbury.

We were kind of wandering around and I figured we’d stop for the evening and set out in the morning for Stonehenge. My wife said she’d wait in the car while I checked to see if they had a room.

I went in and they said they had two rooms - a traditional room or the “Beatles Suite”.

“What’s the Beatles Suite?”

“It’s the suite where the Beatles stayed.”

I kind of chuckled and asked if they say that to everyone, but she pointed to the press clippings on the wall, and it was quite the town event when the Beatles were shooting the Salisbury Plain segment of Help! (in which Stonehenge was visible).

She asked if I’d like to see the rooms and we went upstairs.

The Beatles Suite was not of the period, but was done over in a mod decor with memorabilia and decorating accents based on Beatles lyrics and John Lennon artwork . The bathroom was wallpapered in reproduction handwritten lyrics and annotated sheet music.

“This is great, I’ll take it. I don’t need to see the other room.”

Filled with joy at this find, I went back to the car and told my wife I got us a great room and a real surprise.

We got our stuff and as we headed in and upstairs I was telling her, “They had two rooms available. Back when they were filming Help! the Beatles stayed here and so I got...” and opened the door, “The Beatles Suite!”

She stuck her head in, looked around, and said “What’s the other room look like?”

"On Frozen Pond"... you old coot!

Then, I think it's Tuesday when it will be back in the high 40's. Crazy weather, for sure.

We have been experiencing some very peculiar weather.

Up all night watching the storm on tv. Suppose to .75 inch of ice with rain just South and East and a foot of snow North. Well it moved 15 miles South East and not getting much here in Mt. Pleasant.
Dug out the generator, filled a couple of crocks with water to flush with and charged up all the phones. So far a 1/2 inch of sleet and no power out.
Stay Safe Siwsan.

It doesn't look TOO frightening, on the radar, but I've been fooled before. When we had the big ice storm in 2013, I had power until about 4 hours after the warning had expired, and then it went out for a week! Needless to say, I have no plans for going to bed, tonight.

We couldn't get the generator started when we tested it, a few weeks ago, but it just wasn't a high priority for the person who helps me with such things. He's coming back over, tomorrow, and already has his work order! I think it just needs some sort of fuel additive. Hopefully that's it. Water has started streaming into the sump pump crock. If the power does go out, I'll be spending the night lugging buckets of water up the basement stairs.

Decided on a natural gas space heater. No electric needed and heats my tiny house when the lights go out. Nice to sit in front of and the dogs love it.

It's installed in a utility closet, at the back of the house so it's out of sight of anyone who might be looking for one to steal, during an outage. That was a big problem, back in 2013. I just have to plug it in, start it up and then choose which circuits to flip, on the basement generator circuit board. It is all I really need. I haven't had to use it since I had it installed.

My major concern is the basement (sump pump and furnace), the kitchen (refrigerator) and the garage (freezer). The den is on the same circuit as the garage, so in the winter I can turn the furnace down or off, and use the fireplace/insert to heat the room. I really don't need the rest of the house lit or heated since I can sleep in the den.

That’s always my biggest worry when we get these monster ran storms. Had fun with that last June....

As long as the sump pump keeps running, I should be ok. I'm compulsively checking it, just about every hour, on the hour.

I just checked the warning, again, and find it weird that they haven't updated it, since 4 o'clock, this morning. As of new, it is set to expired at 7, tomorrow morning. From what I see on the radar, the tail end of the precip isn't all that far off.

Oh, and Monday through Wednesday, it's going to be in the 40's, again.

Actually, I think we lucked out somewhat today since my local forecast made it sound like everyone should just stay home and not go anywhere this afternoon. Most of our heavy rain (Macomb County) was in the morning. It was 52o when I got up at 7:00 AM. Weirdest January since I've lived here.

Every weather radar site I check show something slightly different, which is very confusing, but if we make it through the next couple of hours, I can probably stop worrying about a power outage. From looking at the outage map for Consumer's Energy, most of the outages look to be in rural area, so probably caused by fallen trees/limbs.

I am interested in hearing how much rain did fall.