One Week Ago

 

One week ago. Thankfully, it seems longer ago than that. No power from Sunday afternoon through Thursday afternoon. I am done playing Pioneers. I am done sitting in the dark listening to one channel on the radio. I am done playing Abe Lincoln trying to read by fireplace light or thanks to Edison (and Conrad Hubert), by flashlight. I am done sleeping in the living room with layers of clothes and blankets to try and keep warm. Done cooking on a Sterno stove. Done flushing toilets sparingly by pouring water in the bowl. Done sponge bathing and trying to wash my hair. At work, done sorting the mail in the cold and trying to read the addresses by the light of day from the windows or by flashlight. Done calculating prices manually and putting stamps on all pieces instead of meter strips. Done using my cell phone to stay in contact with management. Done shoveling the walkway and now I have to order a new shovel because it broke! On Tuesday it was our 36th wedding anniversary. The fireplace and candlelit dinners had lost all romanticism. I not sure I will ever feel that way about them again. At times during this ordeal, I thought I would actually welcome a call from a telemarketer. That would mean that my phone was working and that I had contact again with civilization. I missed seeing how other people were faring via Facebook and emails, though, it was comforting, in a selfish way, to know that most everyone I knew was in the same boat. On Wednesday evening, we came home from a nice meal lovingly prepared at the Parish Hall in East Hartland for the public left in the dark and cold. As we drove home, in separate cars, I cannot tell the joy we felt as we saw house after house lit up. We were elated that our power must be on. We saw outside garage lights, bright lights in living rooms and even TV's on. Oh, joy! Then five houses before our house were all dark except for the one we knew had a generator. As we pulled in our driveway to our dark, cold house, we realized all those people had generators or powerful alternative sources of light. I could have almost cried as we prepared for another cold night with an inefficient fireplace and dealing with the smokey smell, which still seems to be lingering. I had Thursday and Friday off as we were thinking of getting away for a mini vacation--not! First, where would we find a motel available within 200 miles? Secondly, I could never have a good time knowing that I would come back to dishes needing to be washed, clothes to be laundered, much dusting and wiping to get the smokey smell off of everything. Also, the sad task of cleaning out the two refrigerators and their freezers and sadly disposing of food. That was a heartbreak for the waste. Our insurance company was very nice when we filed a claim. It was done over the phone with no proof necessary and no deductible applied. That helps a little. Then we had to shop for the basics from milk to margarine, eggs and meat. There was no way I could go away and relax with all that to be done. On top of all that, the darkness at night and the cold, made me useless in the evening. I didn't take care of bills to be paid or other things that I could have done by candlelight. The lack of energy in the house equaled the lack of energy in my body. We were just drained. Early Thursday afternoon we were standing in the kitchen and we both looked at each other as we thought we heard a distant ringing. George has tinnitus, so he wasn't sure and asked if I heard something that sounded like a phone. We heard it again and I said, "Phone!" and ran to the bedroom. The kitchen had a cordless which won't work without electricity, but we have a non-cordless in the bedroom. I ran and got there in time to talk via this wonderful invention. It was a salesman, of course. It was actually a solicited one from a home show. I explained our situation and said that we could not even think about anything else at this time. After the phone came back, we got the electricity back in a few more hours. I danced the jig that I promised George that I would dance when it happened. Since then, I've been playing catch up and cleaning. We are also checking into alternative heating sources. Generators scare me and sound kind of like a hassle. We were thinking of a pellet stove, but silly us, we did not know that you need electricity to use them. I used kerosene one year and I swear it made me groggy. Both George and I had the best night of sleep that we could remember that night back in our own comfortable, cozy, warm bed. We woke so refreshed and rested...finally. Well, a week later and about eighteen inches of snow have melted. There are even spots of bare ground where you can see the leaves that didn't get raked. Many trees are still holding on to their rusty and gold colored leaves. We were fortunate for no damage to our trees or property. Unlike the power company or state, whoever is at fault, this summer, George took down a ton of branches and trees that were weak or in danger of causing us damage. So, all is almost back to normal. I just wish everyone in that state had their power back. With all the crews that were supposedly working all this time, that makes more to focus on the remaining customers and therefore, should have them back by the promised deadline of tonight. Note: I did write this with paragraph breaks. I have no clue why they didn't take. My apologies to the reader.

Barkhamsted Winter Wonderland

 
 
 

Wait Winter

Wait Winter
I'm not ready.
Today you gave me a taste of what's to come...
find the scraper,
scrape the windows.
scraper not working well.
(you should be able to test them out before you buy.)
Hurry,
going to be late for work.
I know it's going to get worse...
shoveling snow or chopping ice, cold hands, wet feet...
Winter, stop teasing me,
Just go away or at least wait to come...
Maybe February would be good and then you can leave
about March.
I am not a hardy New Englander any more.

Traffic Report or Squirrels, Rabbits, Turkeys, oh my!

I am so fortunate. I don't have to listen to the traffic report each morning. My commute consists of no traffic lights, two stop signs, two left hand turns and two right hand turns. That's it. It's only 5 1/2 miles. Having worked at the post office, I know that it is preferable to eliminate as many left hand turns as possible. I actually could change one if I went out of my driveway the other way, but I chose to live dangerously.

Anyway, I could write my own traffic report...

As you leave your driveway look out to the left for the squirrels that sometimes play in the front of your yard. A few houses down there is always a rabbit or two eating in the grass. They usually go off into the woods but you still need to slow down should they go the wrong direction.

After leaving your street, on Route 179 in the vicinity of Barkhmasted Firehouse East beware of the turkey crossing. (I think DCF should check out this mother as she is always letting her baby turkeys (chicks?) play near the road or cross the street in a long slow line.)

From then you are on your own. It is guaranteed at least one more squirrel will do his "do I go this way, do I go that way?" game in front of you. You could encounter a deer, though extremely rare. Even rarer is the supposed bear sightings. Everyone on this side of the earth has seen the bear except George and I. I think everyone has conspired against us and made up this legend to fool us. He is just as real as Big Foot to me.

So, putting up with those possible commuter interruptions is not so bad. My dodging animal ratios is pretty good considering the thousands of times they have crossed my path. Though George often says that I can spot an animal ten feet on the side of the road, but I can't see the ruts in the road which I inevitably hit.

The only time I don't like my commute is the winter. I can get up our steep road without much problem--if I take the less steep and less curvy of my two options. I don't worry about that. It's when I get to the junction of Route 179 and Route 219. You can see the plow always turns onto Route 219 and all of a sudden you are in a less plowed, often rut filled road. You try to go in the last person's tracks. If you break down, there is no one around for help. Though, personally I pray on those snowy days that I don't see a car because they make me nervous--will they skid into me or will they tailgate me? I don't mind driving in the snow so much if I am all alone. Often in the snowy winter evenings by 5:30pm, most people have left early and I am alone. Slow and steady I make my way, concentrating on how the car is handling each movement. I am glad my way is basically straight, but I do have hills.

Here it is July nearing 90 degrees, humid and I end up talking about snow. I don't want either. Give me 75 degrees and a breeze.
Well, that's my traffic report today. Sounds better than a tractor trailer turnover or a five car pile up!