Best day in two weeks: we have full power restored again. I turned every light on; set the fridge on max; ran the dishwasher, and did a little dance.
Elise told me, as I was changing her diaper, "Mom, Opa ate deer poop!" Opa teased the kids at the Barony when we found deer poop, and it apparently stuck with Elise!
Off to stock the fridge before I head out of town.
In an attempt to forget about Charlotte's Web and death, I thought Stone Fox would be a great distraction. Ugh, not so. I actually welled up and my voice cracked when the [spoiler alert] dog drops dead and the boy carries him across the finish line. Woah, was that a tear jerker. I've got to get a grip on good bedtime stories!!
Monday, November 12, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
2012_11_09 Friday
The nor'easter snow is basically melted now. The storm was unpleasant, and the backyard neighbors left their flood lights, so I saw every stinkin' flake and wind. No damage anywhere that I could see. I took the kids outside at 5pm last night to get some energy out; they loved it. Jonathan tried to build a snowman and snow angels.
Today, temps are warming, which is bad for my outdoor refrigerator system. BUT, neighbors stopped an electric co. pick-up truck to 'report' our electricity problem. After explaining it to them (repeatedly) and them denying it was their issue to fix, and even telling me I was pointing to a telephone wire (!!), they finally saw the wire (with binoculars!) and issued a work order. Then, they backtracked about how hard it was to see that wire and that it was wrapped incorrectly so it looked like part of the street light, etc. etc. Maybe theirs will be more of a priority than what I called in. Or maybe it won't...who knows.
Last night, Jonathan and I finished up Charlotte's Web. Great book, but not at 9pm on a school night. He was pretty upset that [spoiler alert] Charlotte dies. Rather than harping on her dying, I tried to focus on what a good friend she was to Wilbur. Poor kid was pretty sad going to bed. Our local community theater did a casting call for K-9 grader for the play recently. I want to see if they got enough Ks and see the production in early Feb. Better that than watching a movie version!
Today, temps are warming, which is bad for my outdoor refrigerator system. BUT, neighbors stopped an electric co. pick-up truck to 'report' our electricity problem. After explaining it to them (repeatedly) and them denying it was their issue to fix, and even telling me I was pointing to a telephone wire (!!), they finally saw the wire (with binoculars!) and issued a work order. Then, they backtracked about how hard it was to see that wire and that it was wrapped incorrectly so it looked like part of the street light, etc. etc. Maybe theirs will be more of a priority than what I called in. Or maybe it won't...who knows.
Last night, Jonathan and I finished up Charlotte's Web. Great book, but not at 9pm on a school night. He was pretty upset that [spoiler alert] Charlotte dies. Rather than harping on her dying, I tried to focus on what a good friend she was to Wilbur. Poor kid was pretty sad going to bed. Our local community theater did a casting call for K-9 grader for the play recently. I want to see if they got enough Ks and see the production in early Feb. Better that than watching a movie version!
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
2012_11_07 Wednesday
Life is slowly returning to nearly-normal:
We actually only have partial power right now. We have heat and hot water; we have lights; we have some outlets (1/2 of the living room and kitchen, and none in the master and basement); we have the microwave, a small college fridge, and our large freezer. We do not have power to the stove, the refrigerator, the disposal (although I ran an extension cord to fire it up b/c water/gunk was backing up), or the entire basement -- including sump pumps (which I jerryrigged to working outlets) and watering system -- nor any lights/heat in the master bedroom (I'm sleeping on a fold-out couch in the guest room! gee is that uncomfortable. Sorry, past guests!!!) or power to the front porch fan or outside lights. I realized that we do have power in the den, but our ceiling fan/lights were turned out by the pulley rather than by the power switch, so I had thought there was no power in there (still no TV, though). doh.
I had been meaning to clean out the fridge/freezer for awhile, so I did that yesterday (lovely furries growing in there!). Luckily, it's cold enough outside, that I can leave some things inside the front porch overnight.
Our neighbors are experiencing the same problems. I saw some power guys in town last night, and they said it must be a faulty connection to our house (and our neighbor's too), but don't expect it to be repaired for awhile since we do have some power. Power guys told our neighbors today that it's an internal problem. Our electrician said (over the phone and in person) it's an external problem. Gesh, I love the pass-the-buck going on here. We are now in the queue for the power guys to come back to hook up that one wire.
Jonathan went back to school today. His backpack was laden with papers from a week ago! Everyone gathered near the old stop today, so it was nice to see so many faces again. During breakfast, I told him about the election results (we all voted together yesterday), and he said: "Oma and Opa are probably really sad today, right?" What a smart kid.
Meanwhile, Elise and I raked all the leaves off the driveway and front yard. It's a massive pile, and we sure got our exercise for the day (and we found a dead bird!) At the end, it started snowing. Certainly, nothing to accumulate, but enough to see.
One nice thing about all this is that we've spoken to our neighbors more in the past two weeks than in four years! We've built a little community because of the storm.
We actually only have partial power right now. We have heat and hot water; we have lights; we have some outlets (1/2 of the living room and kitchen, and none in the master and basement); we have the microwave, a small college fridge, and our large freezer. We do not have power to the stove, the refrigerator, the disposal (although I ran an extension cord to fire it up b/c water/gunk was backing up), or the entire basement -- including sump pumps (which I jerryrigged to working outlets) and watering system -- nor any lights/heat in the master bedroom (I'm sleeping on a fold-out couch in the guest room! gee is that uncomfortable. Sorry, past guests!!!) or power to the front porch fan or outside lights. I realized that we do have power in the den, but our ceiling fan/lights were turned out by the pulley rather than by the power switch, so I had thought there was no power in there (still no TV, though). doh.
I had been meaning to clean out the fridge/freezer for awhile, so I did that yesterday (lovely furries growing in there!). Luckily, it's cold enough outside, that I can leave some things inside the front porch overnight.
Our neighbors are experiencing the same problems. I saw some power guys in town last night, and they said it must be a faulty connection to our house (and our neighbor's too), but don't expect it to be repaired for awhile since we do have some power. Power guys told our neighbors today that it's an internal problem. Our electrician said (over the phone and in person) it's an external problem. Gesh, I love the pass-the-buck going on here. We are now in the queue for the power guys to come back to hook up that one wire.
Jonathan went back to school today. His backpack was laden with papers from a week ago! Everyone gathered near the old stop today, so it was nice to see so many faces again. During breakfast, I told him about the election results (we all voted together yesterday), and he said: "Oma and Opa are probably really sad today, right?" What a smart kid.
Meanwhile, Elise and I raked all the leaves off the driveway and front yard. It's a massive pile, and we sure got our exercise for the day (and we found a dead bird!) At the end, it started snowing. Certainly, nothing to accumulate, but enough to see.
One nice thing about all this is that we've spoken to our neighbors more in the past two weeks than in four years! We've built a little community because of the storm.
Monday, November 5, 2012
2012_11_05 Monday
Around 8pm tonight, power finally came back on at home!! Of course, it was way too late for us to head home, but we'll pack everything up in the AM and head back. It's been a fun week:
Jonathan and I have been playing with numbers a lot, though: we went bowling today; we play war and solitaire cards; and he/Elise/Oma/Opa made chocolate chip cookies -- all with a focus on math and numbers before/after. We also went ice skating yesterday and talked about how slippery the ice is and watched/discussed the Zamboni afterward. He had a lot of fun slipping and sliding on the ice. After our bowling adventure, he decided that he'd like to go ice skating again first, then bowling. A trip to the Arboretum got some energy out but the Creamery refueled him with lots of sugar. He helped Opa recycle and earned a quarter for his help. Plus, we spend each day outside climbing trees, examining fossils, kicking milkweed pods, and searching for deer footprints.
While we aren't looking forward to leaving, it's time, and we do need to get home to get back into our normal life routine at some point!
Jonathan and I have been playing with numbers a lot, though: we went bowling today; we play war and solitaire cards; and he/Elise/Oma/Opa made chocolate chip cookies -- all with a focus on math and numbers before/after. We also went ice skating yesterday and talked about how slippery the ice is and watched/discussed the Zamboni afterward. He had a lot of fun slipping and sliding on the ice. After our bowling adventure, he decided that he'd like to go ice skating again first, then bowling. A trip to the Arboretum got some energy out but the Creamery refueled him with lots of sugar. He helped Opa recycle and earned a quarter for his help. Plus, we spend each day outside climbing trees, examining fossils, kicking milkweed pods, and searching for deer footprints.
While we aren't looking forward to leaving, it's time, and we do need to get home to get back into our normal life routine at some point!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
2012_10_31 Wednesday
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.
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.
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
