Still in the Dark

No power here, of course, but it was an ok day. We spent most of it at a friend's house doing laundry. The kids played video games and surfed the web and are a little happier tonight.

We've seen a few signs of progress. There are new poles at the major street about a mile from us. Gas rationing goes into effect tomorrow (based on license plate, odd fill on odd numbered days, etc ) which will hopefully reduce the insane lines (and fights). We have not had to fill up yet and are waiting in the hopes things calm down.

We still have major trees down and getting I. And out of our neighborhood is a challenge. Which streets are open? Which was and is now blocked because they're working? I'll take it as a sign of progress.

But the weather is predicted to get colder and a nor'easter may hit middle of next week. Praying the f

This is Not an Adventure

We are still without power and likely to be this way for some time. Our house is on the eastern side of the ridge in our town, and appears to have caught the brunt of the wind in our area. The eye of Sandy passed south of us, so the north side of the hurricane, which has less rain but stronger winds, hit us and our ridge sheltered the towns on the other side. They have some trees down and no power, but nothing like up here.

The trees all fell towards the west, so the north-south streets have multiple trees on them, some very very large. Power lines are down all over the place, and we've found one spot where a high voltage line came down and melted a crater into the asphalt - we are lucky no houses burned here. But there are power poles snapped and we've yet to see even a city crew even starting to clear roads. Power will be at least a week, maybe more.

We are surviving off an inverter John hooked to his car battery. It gives us enough for the gas appliances that have electronic ignition (water heater, stove, fireplace) and to charge our phones. We did have the router on it and internet - until someone cut our fiber yesterday. It was hanging kind of low across the street and I guess they thought it was a hazard to large trucks.

I was doing pretty well until we lost Internet yesterday and John couldn't get the water heater to light this morning. We used the last of the water for short showers, but it's going to be a long wait if we don't have hot water.

Aftermath

No power. No damage to house. Posting from my phone so keeping it short. Will try to get some pictures up. Hope all are well and safe.

Frankenstorm

We have already lost and regained power here, so I figured I should post while I can.  It's been pretty uneventful so far, but we are still early in the storm. John hooked up an inverter to one of the car batteries, and rigged power for the hot water heater, sump pump, and stove.  He can also add in our fireplace (gas, with an electric gas valve and igniter) if it gets cold. He was supposed to fly to Toronto this morning, that got canceled Saturday night. They rebooked him for tomorrow afternoon, but that got cancelled already. So I don't think he's going to make it to Toronto this week, and that's fine by me.

So far, the biggest emergency? My children trying to figure out what to do with themselves without power.  Oh, the horror!

Unfortunate Trends

Dear Knitting World-
What is it with all these cardigan patterns that button at the top and are open below?

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/tea-leaves-cardigan

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/february-lady-sweater

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cardigan-019-t8-630

There are many more. All of these sweaters are lovely on the models, and some of them look really fun to knit, but... none of them would be flattering on me.  I have a stomach, it's bigger than I'd like it to be, and the last thing I need is some lovely lace contrasting with my shirt and drawing attention to it. Or a sweater that looks like I knitted it a size too small on purpose.

I'd love to see a trend of v-neck cardigans that button at the waist (or just above), and have clever ribbing or something that makes it look like I have a waist!  Yeah, that's it! I could get excited about that!

If you could arrange that, I'd be most grateful.  Thanks, Knitting World!

Love,

Me

Magic

We have pea gravel in our playground area. It's mostly cream colored, but there's the occasional piece of clear quartz.  When Rachel was little, say 3 or 4 years old, she would collect stones from the playground, particularly quartz ones, and ask me for a container. They were, I was informed, "meenie minie moe" rocks, and they were magic.

She never explained why they were magic, or what they did, or even how she selected them, but we had little containers of rocks stashed here and there for a long time.  I even found one a few months ago, cleaning out the back hallway.

William has friends over today, and when they came in from playing in the back yard, the little brother had his pockets filled with rocks.  I gave him a baggie to put them in, and you know, I guess they're still magic.

Perils of Suburban Living

I walked out to get the paper this morning, and there were three deer in the front yard - a doe and two fawns.  When I came out the door, one of the fawns panicked and started to run towards the back yard, but then realized that brought her closer to me (sort of). She totally lost it, and ran one way, then circled around, then back towards Mom, and was doing these crazy loops around the yard.  Her twin ran across the street, then stopped, and came back, and clearly didn't know which way to go.

Mama Deer? She stood there, watching me carefully as I walked up the driveway, got the paper, and walked out to the mailbox to get yesterday's mail.  It didn't spook her even when I picked up the recycling bucket and brought it back to the house. Granted, I did move smoothly and fairly deliberately and didn't come any closer to her than necessary. But she never moved her feet the entire time I was outside.

I wish I had a video - babies running all over the yard, Mama standing like a rock.  There's probably a metaphor there.