 Carrboro and surrounding areas were caught in the grip of an ice storm on Wednesday, December 4, that continued throughout the night, leaving the town paralyzed and without power for the next couple of days, as Duke Power worked to restore juice to more than a million customers who were left in the dark. Pitch black streets lended an eerie effect to the ice covered streets of Carrboro late Thursday night. Movable stop signs were placed in the center of major intersections where street lights failed to function. Four way stops became the temporary traffic rule. 
 Word of the storm began two full days in advance, but past memories of weathermen crying wolf die hard for some of us. There had been several occasions during my years behind the bar at the Carolina Inn when supervisors insisted on employees spending the night, only to see nary a drop of precipitation on the ground come morning. 
 No outdoor surface in sight was uneffected by the blast, covering everything with a thick layer of ice, and making even the small fallen limbs of substantial weight as we worked to carry them out of the path of vehicles on our road. Large branches bent, near breaking, with many remaining that way long after the ice had melted as temperatures rose on Friday. 
 
We were not immune from this nasty storm, as we awakened on Thursday to find a tree branch cracked across our power lines, where it dangles still, with a line of some sort resting on the ground. Four large branches crashed within inches of our windshield, making us wonder how we could've been so fortunate to avoid the wrath suffered by our neighbor, whose windshield was cracked by a similar occurrence.The lack of electricity makes you realize how much you take it for granted. Pulling out candles, games, and books had us appreciating life's simpler pleasures. No computers, TV, or e-mail to deal with during these few days. The laptop battery long ago died. Our cell phones were turned off to save for emergency use, and our phone in the basement was brought up to replace the cordless varieties that had become useless once the electricity failed. By Saturday afternoon our adventure came to an end as power was restored to our Carrboro home. The furnace brought warmth back into our rooms. No food was lost from the freezer or the fridge. We were lucky to have hot water and gas to cook with during this ordeal, and luckier still to get our power restored so quickly. As of Saturday night there were still thousands of Carolina households without power. Hopefully in the next few days everything will be back to normal. In the meantime, we now have plenty of candles to carry us through the rest of the winter, which we hear is predicted to be a real bear. Computer Stuff | Downtown Carrboro Map | Events | Prices | Restaurants | UniqueOrn Enterprises 
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