Hi All - my power has been on since late January 1998. I was without power at my home for 2 weeks in early 1998. It started on the 5th or so of January. I did not have an alternate source of heat, other that electric. I pulled my gas bbq close to my back door, and every morning boiled two pots of water - one to make coffee, and one to do my bird bath. lol. What surprised me, was that as I got colder, I was also more reluctant to leave my home. My friend Sarah invited both me and my puss to come to their home, but at that time they had a kerosene heater in their kitchen and were about to illegally install an 'airtight' unit in their basement fireplace. Since my ex was helping them do this, I would have been said to be in a negative place, to object, or nay-say. I had to call a mutually dear friend to do the nay-saying. btw, the above two things are the biggest cause of deaths in ice/extreme snow storms. People try to heat with heaters that need to operate outdoors, ie: kerosene heaters, gas bbqs - they asphyxiate. Or they illegally install wood boxes in regular fireplaces. This, 1st of all, negates any fire insurance you might have. Also, it increases your risk of chimney fires, as the fire from these are much hotter, causing flue fires. I was at home, reading books by candle light, with my gloves on, and and my lovely Midnight in my crotch - sorry, that's the way it was....anyway, Sarah kicked her DH, and he got timeshare on a generator. He put in onto their High Efficiency gas furnace early every am, and then went around all day, house to house, to put heat into other homes. Because they were on city water and gas hot water heater, Sarah filled every thermos we all owned every am with coffee, cause she could put power from the generator to that plug. OK, Murray could do that. So, Sarah and I could go to work, as our offices, 15 or so minutes from home, had power. Murray spent his touring the generator around. One day, I realized that the grocery store in my mall - which still had power, mind you, had bread ovens. Now the trick here is that they had the heat anyway, they could cook my dinner - so I bought a 5 lb. lasagne, and asked them to put it into the bread oven, in time that I could take it home at 5 pm. You have to remember, that this area had almost never lost power, so had trouble relating. It was the best meal ever. sarah pulled some garlic bread out of the now freezer - the cooler on the back deck- and toasted it to go with the lasagne. We then retired, the 3 of us, to their bed upstairs(OK, minds out of the gutter), where we watched 'The Fugitive' on the TV from their cabin cruiser, with opera glasses, as it was attached to a 12V battery. And that is how I survived that Ice Storm of '98. Nancy. Oh yeah, by the by - a good way to know if your freezer has been compromised: put 6 ice cubes into a small baggie. If they lose their shape, you've lost your food. Again, btw, Nell - this is winter as we know it here. If we are not prepared, shame on us!!!

Susan and Randy, Y'all are starting to scare me. : ) Our forecasters aren't going as far as yours are just yet, but I think by tonight they'll have a better idea wht to expect this far south. The only way our forecast has gone downhill this morning from last night's forecast is that they increased our chance of precip from 60% to 80%. They already were saying 'freezing rain' (our worst possible scenario) and now they've changed that slightly to say a 'wintery mix' on Thursday and snow on Friday. I guess I'll go to the store today and stock up on food for the hungry firefighters because, if ice does hit hard here, they'll be out 24/7 and I like to put big crockpots of Taco Soup, Chicken Tortilla Soup and Chicken and Dumplings at the station for them. That, and lots of coffee and hot chocolate keep them warm. We are having huge numbers of birds at the feeders again all of a sudden. It had tapered off a lot as the warm weather returned last week. I guess they sense the changes coming in the next couple of days because they seem to be eating like there's no tomorrow. Dawn

Ellen, it's a bit cooler here at the beach - only 75°, but beautiful and sunny. Snow pictures always amaze me. Those globes look surreal, and I find it interesting that your snow is red colored. The one time I was able to photograph snow (on Mt. San Jacinto), it came out blue in the photo. Your house is very beautiful also. Those pictures would have scared me as a child. Whenever I saw pictures of scenes with snow on the ground, I thought the white parts were ghosts. Lars

So on paper...the contract...it says all joints/ducts are sealed. Just because it says that on paper does not guarantee that it was actually done. Workers sometime shortcut or miss or just do not do something properly. Just confirm for yourself that the run has no leakage. Turn the fan on on the furnace, go in the attic and follow the run to your master bedroom. Also look for spider webs near the run. Those critters like moving air. Hopefully your attic is easily accessible. If there is not any leakage you may have to balance all the registers. Partially Close some of the register vents until airflow increases in the master bedroom