ICE

[image description: long icicle]

As I've stated in my 2 previous posts, Tuesday night we had an ice storm. Last night the melted ice and the heavy rain water did freeze as I'd expected. I'm glad I took something last night to knock me out because when I finally woke up I woke up to crashing ice. I have a horrible view out my window, thus my blinds are never open. I look right at a back stairwell. I thought someone was breaking it up, until I realized the sounds were sporadic, and loud crashy sounding. I reached over my head (my head lays right at the window) and pulled my blinds open. There were large chunks of slightly melting ice sliding off the very slanted roof and crashing into bits at the bottom of the stairwell. There were large chunks of ice falling from other spots on the roof as well. Good I thought. Broken up ice melts faster then large sheets of ice. But could they stop already? The incessant crashing was getting very annoying.

I got up and out finally only to find out that yellow caution tape was tied to the railings of the ramp. It was also tied to 2 trees on the sides of the sidewalk leading to the bottom of the ramp. I guess to save people from getting impaled by large chunks of falling ice. But what were they thinking? Everyone knows that a gimp in a chair lives there. The stairs weren't roped off though. There's an overhang that is not slanted that would keep the ice from hitting people entering/leaving that way. But what good does that do for a girl in a powerchair? 5 steps... I don't think so. I'll take my chances getting impaled by ice chunks. Maybe a hunky army doc will yank it out of my abdomen :) . Besides, by noon the ice had pretty much stopped falling. I figured 1) it was pretty safe, and 2) I had no choice. I couldn't be trapped. I had a 1pm meeting with my internship supervisor.

I tried to break the tape, but it didn't work. I did manage to stretch it enough that I could lift it over my head. The tape tied to the tree branches was high enough that I could duck and sail right under. My chair doesn't have handlebars so we screwed 2 hooks onto the back to hold a backpack. They weren't being occupied and on the way back in the building one of them managed to snag the tape on the ramp and break it. Great! Until I left to go to my appointment and came back to find the 2 ends tied together. *sigh* A gimp in a chair lives here. So I went in and got my chair so I could come to the library now to type this (wireless in my building wouldn't work) and this time did manage to break the tape apart in a different spot (the spot that had been stretched). But watch that I come back from here and find it tied together again. Or maybe not since it is after regular business hours. All I can do is shake my head...