Happy Halloween and Post-Sandy!
Well, we weathered SuperStorm Sandy alright. We lost power at 2:30, which was hours before the storm actually hit us at 8pm. The wind advisory ended around 11pm; the gusts were pretty scary. Our town has lots of very old trees, and many of them came down, knocking out power for most of the town. We expect no power for 7-10 days after the storm. We had a generator on stand-by (lesson learned from Hurricane Irene), but because there wasn't as much rain as we anticipated, our basement stayed dry without it. A day without power is an adventure, but more than that just isn't fun. So, we packed up all our food and headed inland to my folks in central PA and left the generator (and our cats) for our neighbors. Jonathan is out of school through the week, possibly into next week.
We did hear a large crash mid-storm, come to realize that our neighbors across the street lost their van and garage to two trees crashing down on them. Our street is a dead-end, and the tree that took out our power also tore down wires across our road, blocking us in. We did a little off-roading to get out of dodge. In all, there were eight major trees down on our road alone! We didn't see any houses damaged, though, so that's fortuitous. Clean-up is going to take a very long time. Our local gas station is out of gas. At least one store in town sustained damage.
I did remember to pack up the kids' Halloween costumes, so check out the pix of the storm (there are front/back yard pre-Sandy; front/back yard at power-out; and front/back yard post-Sandy, and they all look the same! and various downed trees at neighbors'); then Skeleton Jonathan and Princess Elise; and some post-pumpkin carving with Opa. Jonathan wrote a note that said (something like): "If I walk into town with you, we have to get frozen yogurt," so we did (for milk and to mail a bill, really) just before the storm.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
2012_10_18 Thursday
Jonathan had his first class field trip today to a "farm" that didn't have any animals. They did a hay ride and a hay maze; picked a pumpkin; and had apple cider and a doughnut. I'm guessing/hoping there was some sort of educational perspective there too, but that doesn't get reported home.
Then, in the afternoon, Elise and I went to his class to dissect three (well, two) hornet nests from The Barony. We had intended to do three, but I saw a bald faced hornet crawling up the rear window as I was driving, so I decided against bringing that one to 22 kids, the teacher, and the principal. I left the nest on the side of the road, although it's close enough to the school that someone is likely to find it. I had been messing with that nest all day, slicing it open and shaking it so I'm a little surprised to have found one bugger crawling out. Anyway, because it was a beautiful day, we did it outside, and that allowed for no mess in the classroom, too. The kids got a charge out of it. The best question was: "If there's a Queen wasp, where's the king wasp?" Oh, there were so many answers running through my head, but I settled on "There are none. All the boy wasps work for the Queen." Then, whoever wanted got to take some of the paper home. Less for me to deal with! Teacher seemed pleased too, and I think I may be the official science class helper now.
Then, in the afternoon, Elise and I went to his class to dissect three (well, two) hornet nests from The Barony. We had intended to do three, but I saw a bald faced hornet crawling up the rear window as I was driving, so I decided against bringing that one to 22 kids, the teacher, and the principal. I left the nest on the side of the road, although it's close enough to the school that someone is likely to find it. I had been messing with that nest all day, slicing it open and shaking it so I'm a little surprised to have found one bugger crawling out. Anyway, because it was a beautiful day, we did it outside, and that allowed for no mess in the classroom, too. The kids got a charge out of it. The best question was: "If there's a Queen wasp, where's the king wasp?" Oh, there were so many answers running through my head, but I settled on "There are none. All the boy wasps work for the Queen." Then, whoever wanted got to take some of the paper home. Less for me to deal with! Teacher seemed pleased too, and I think I may be the official science class helper now.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
2012_10_09 Tuesday
I read to Jonathan tonight, and after snuggling and winding down for a bit, he said: "Mom, I'll tickle you to amphibian." Translation: "to infinity."
Also, the other day, I had Elise smell ground coffee and instead of sniffing in gently, as common sense would dictate, she exhaled with gusto and spread coffee grounds all over her face and my table. I couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Monday, October 8, 2012
2012_10_08 Monday
Ahh, yes, what a typical Monday...Elise threw up five (yes 5) times today. Twice she got me. Then I learned that when she says her belly hurts, get her to the toilet stat! If memory serves, this is the first time she's thrown up as a real person (not just burping up). Poor baby couldn't keep a thing down -- not even Pedialite. So, after the third time, I called our doctor; a nurse freaked and said I should be in the ER immediately but that a time slot had just opened in the evening if I wanted that. So, I did. I was tempted to cancel it after we had a good two hours of nothing. But, she threw up once more at home and again right outside the doctor's door. Jonathan was very little help there, unfortunately, but I did have the foresight to bring a towel with me.
Bottom line: Doc says she's got a normal stomach bug. Her lips are dry but her tongue is not, so she's ok, but needs to be hydrated...but only in small sips to help keep it down. She should lie low tomorrow (rest and fluids), and assuming all goes well, she should be ok again on Wednesday.
Great, so I'm house-bound for 48-hrs, and in all likelihood, some/all of us will get touched with this. I'm already psychosomatic.
Bottom line: Doc says she's got a normal stomach bug. Her lips are dry but her tongue is not, so she's ok, but needs to be hydrated...but only in small sips to help keep it down. She should lie low tomorrow (rest and fluids), and assuming all goes well, she should be ok again on Wednesday.
Great, so I'm house-bound for 48-hrs, and in all likelihood, some/all of us will get touched with this. I'm already psychosomatic.
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