57 Hours

Sometimes I just hate being right.

Shortly after my last blog post I realized that all the trees around the house were doubling over with snow. I heard a su-woosh-thump sound outside the window and thought a tree just dropped a ton of snow.

I headed downstairs and the beeches and pines out back were hanging inches from the windows. I snapped a couple of pix and went into the bathroom.

Then I saw the tree top laying just outside the bathroom window!!

I started to get freaked out that a tree was going to come down on the house. We all sleep on outside walls near windows-making perfect targets for crashing trees.

I tore the old pull-out sofa apart with much tugging and straining. The springs let go on it a few years ago, and I had a spare Queen-sized futon that I decided to jab in there with the little skimpy foam mattress that came with it. The combo gives the couch a lot of oomph, but makes it very difficult to pull out into a sleeper.

With the two kids and indoor pets you can imagine I needed to vacuum it- just as I finished the lights went out. I transferred everyone downstairs in the dark with a dim flashlight and it took them hours to get back to sleep.

Morning dawned to show everything plastered with snow. Trees were doubled over touching the ground, branches snapped-oh, yeah.



I called the outage in to the power company in the wee hours, and the service started rattling off towns in alphabetical order. At least 40 towns were listed. Oh goodie.

During the day today I was taking a break at the desk (pretending I was online ;) ) and saw my cell phone. The other night K stopped by and started talking about text messages. She sent me a simple text, "Hi". I started thinking about it and decided I would reply today with, "Got snow?"

I went through several screens and found her text and started my reply; "G", then went to type, O", except the m and the n were infront of the "o". I typed "m", then again to advance it and instead received another, "m". I moved the cursor and tried again. I now had "Gmmm". I pressed a couple of buttons to try and figure out how to get from "m" to "o" and all of a sudden I saw, "reply sent." Yes, my first text message, "Gmmm."

The second morning dawned bright. Everything still laden with snow. And still no power.

I let the exhausted saplings sleep in and headed out solo for goat chores. My first solo since I burned my foot.

It wa sooo beautiful and nearly balmy with the bright sun on all the snow. My fingers froze on the collars and several times I had to ball my hands into fists inside my heavy work gloves to thaw them out.

All of the little goats were well-behaved for me.

I struck out for town later searching for lights in houses. It wasn't until mid afternoon that I called a neighbor and discovered the outage in the area seems to be limited to our road. Delightful.

I had a brief nightmare that we would be without power for a month.



We did see something on TV later that afternoon. A cat in love. LOL.

We're fast approaching the start of day three.

I forgot to pick up a paper today and without the internet or TV I have no idea the extent of storm damage in the state. The power co is still listing dozens of towns in alphabetical order.

The prehistoric radio shack transistor radio is tuned to a great classic rock station with no news. The dial and reception is so touchy I am just leaving it where it is. They are playing classic rock and I am astounded that I know the lyrics to nearly evey song they play. Zeppelin, Frampton, Seeger, Stones, Queen, Benetar, Bryan Adams, REO Speedwagon-it seems I know them all. When did I memorize all these lines?

Finally this am after finally figuring out how to make the perfect cup of campfire coffee, the power came back on. 57 hours down.

Later this afternoon the Willow and I were off on a hay run, listening to our regular station of new music. "Sticks and stones and animals bones, good days and bad days," the Willow sang along automatically in a high falsetto.

And so goes the next generation of music.... :D