The Daily Five: Power Outages, Half-Days, Blood Drives, Library and Groundhog Days

1. Today will be partly cloudy, partly sunny, with a few flurries possible later in the day. Winds, which continued to be blustery through the night, should die down to a more reasonable 15 to 20 mph today, according to Weather.com, but temperatures are likely to drop also, to a high of 33 degrees and a low of 19 degrees. Tonight should be mostly clear.  

2. A quick tour of East Lyme, Old Lyme, and Lyme yesterday suggested that the recent high winds had done some damage to both trees and power lines, most notably in Lyme. Hadlyme was hardest high in terms of power outages and Ferry Road was closed for a while as CL&P conducted repairs. Hopefully, everyone has power back today. 

One property not far from Lyme Town Hall on Route 156 had a totally collapsed fence but it wasn't due to the winds. Last week, a car veered in front of a school bus, causing one of the vehicles to ram into the fence. The property owners were unlucky enough to have yet another vehicle collide into the fence again this week. The only good news, really, is that the property owners hadn't fixed the fence since the previous accident. 

3. Quick reminders:

• East Lyme schools are having a half day today as staff are staying in the afternoon for professional development seminars. 
• East Lyme will be holding a blood drive for the American Red Cross in honor of the town's much loved, sorely missed Director of Public Works, Mike Giannattasio, who passed away on Oct. 31, 2012. The blood drive will be held from 1 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. at the East Lyme Community Center, 39 Society Rd., in Niantic. 

4. Unlike St. Patrick's Day or Mardi Gras, Groundhog Day doesn't usually inspire big celebrations but the Old Lyme Inn is celebrating in a big way this Saturday with traditional Bluegrass band Nick Anderson & Shady Creek, which will be playing at 8 p.m. 

5. Saturday is Take Your Child to The Library day, which was officially started by a librarian in Waterford. Most of our libraries are planning special events in honor of the day. Be sure to check back on Patch tomorrow to see what they all have planned.