Behind!

Crazy weather -- rain all night, HEAVY, and then winds, EVEN HEAVIER. Woke up at 4 a.m. with every intention of getting some work done ... discovered the power was out. Didn't come back on until 5:30 a.m. I'm grateful it wasn't out long, and I'm grateful there was no snow (since they were predicting 2 - 5") but I'm already behind. After putting up LASR/WC pages and feeding the four legged family members, I had to wake DD and the day begins with me accomplishing nothing.

Worse, the wind is still blowing like crazy and who knows if the power will stay on?

Anyway, that's it for my blog post today because I need to make DD's lunch, get dressed and get ready to leave.

:::waves:::

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You Are Thoughtful and Gentle

You approach the holidays with restraint and wisdom. For you, the holidays are all about the people you love. You tend to concentrate on spending time with loved ones and reconnecting. You never forget what the holidays mean to you, and you succeed in not getting caught up in the chaos. Of all the types, you're the most likely to enjoy the ritual of wrapping presents. You're also the most likely to give a small but very meaningful gift.

The Wrapping Paper Test

Um... that's about 75% wrong.

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Post "Snowtober" storm Report

Okay ... I'm finally officially back online, though much of my town is not. The library only got power late yesterday afternoon, and the place I do agility was still closed last night. Our local Super WalMart lost power for three days and had to toss all their frozen and perishable foods, though they probably could have just put them all outside in the two feet of snow, lol...

The local school district was closed Monday and Tuesday, but opened yesterday. Manchester was closed until today, and the Nashua schools are still closed.

DD's school opened on Tuesday, thankfully (would really stink to already have three snow days to make up in June ... I swear, kids are going to be going to school all summer at this rate). Sadly, her school was vandalized -- someone spray painted graffiti on the two little school buses they have and on the doors and windows of the building. It's already been cleaned off, but made me very sad.

Some pictures:

My driveway immediately following the storm (yes, there's a car under there somewhere):



And the back deck -- we got about two feet of nasty, heavy, wet snow:



Some random pictures of tree damage (we had a small tree on one of the power lines up the road a mile or so, which is what killed our power).





One house on the way to school had a tree drop on it (Mom, you'll know it -- the blue house with the gingerbread bright yellow shutters) and now has a tarp over the roof, and one street about a block from DD's school was closed because a huge oak was down. No matter where I drive, branches still litter the sides of the road, trees are broken and there are leaves and debris everywhere.

I'm pretty sure this storm caused worse damage than the ice storm in 2008 and the wind storm last year.

We had our generator, thankfully, but I admit to getting nervous when the few gas stations with power in the area started running out of gas. In the past couple of days, too, generators are being stolen in huge numbers, even when they're chained up. I'm always saddened when hard times bring out the worse in people instead of the best. I did see one picture in Amherst where a woman (on Sunday) who had power was inviting folks to her house to watch the NE Patriots game. Just stuck a sign out that said "I have power and the Pats ... fans welcome".

In any case, this doesn't bode well for the rest of the winter, but I'm betting there's a run on generators this coming week. *G*

Tomorrow I'll talk NaNo.

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Fun With Cats and Dogs

Although all cat games have their rules and rituals, these vary with the individual player. The cat, of course, never breaks a rule. If it does not follow precedent, that simply means it has created a new rule and it is up to you to learn it quickly if you want the game to continue. ~Sidney Denham

Thought we were going to get blown away yesterday -- I couldn't believe the wind!! Apparently 14,000 people lost power, including our library and the grocery store where I was shopping. Not for too long, thankfully, but OY. Sadly, there was one person killed -- a teenager who had a tree fall on him.

Today is supposed to be sunny, warm and fairly calm so, yay.

The dynamics between my cat and dog crack me up. From the time Dakota was a baby, the cat let her know who was boss, and now Dakota won't challenge her in any way. The newest "fun" the cat has is standing on the mat at the back door when Dakota and I go out first thing in the morning. When I open the door to let the dog in, she won't go past the cat, just stands and looks sad ("I want to obey you by going inside, but THE CAT is there." :::shivers:::).

The other day, the ultimate happened though. I saw this:



Yep... the cat in the dog's crate. Dakota just stood there, in her "vulture" pose (head down by her feet, should blades up, staring intently), but would NOT go in.

I think the cat spends her days thinking of how to torture the dog.

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You Are Adventurous

You are a very broad minded person. You try to avoid judging or even having expectations. You'll say yes to almost anything, and as a result, you tend to live a pretty wild and crazy life. You are a colorful person with a lot of good stories to tell. You are definitely not a wallflower! You have a wicked sense of humor, and you're amazingly funny. You get people laughing in no time.

The Retro Pattern Test

Hmmm... about 50/50...

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Ode to Electricity?

I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks. ~William Shakespeare

Last night I felt like I should write an ode to electricity. Everything I did was a wonder: washing dishes (hot! water!), laundry, cooking dinner, and especially flushing the toilet (woo hoo!). I murmured a word of thanks each time I did anything that required a bit of power.

We're so spoiled, we Americans. We really, really are. And so lucky.

DH said I'd make a terrible pioneer woman. I reminded him of two things:

1. Growing up for several years I LIVED as a pioneer woman -- with no power, no toilet, no phone, no NOTHING. I knew HOW to do it. That didn't mean I had to like it.

2. If I WAS a pioneer woman, my house would have been set up appropriately. I would have had an outhouse, a HAND pump on my well and a wood stove meant to cook on and in.

So :-P ~~

If you're interested in looking at pictures of the local damage, our NH Newspaper has a slideshow set up -- there are several pictures of my nearby neighborhood. No, I didn't take pictures. Sorry. I really need to get back into the habit of doing so ...

DD is moping about though. For two days, I did nearly nothing but play games with her ... and now I have other things I need to do. I still played a few games, but not for ten hours straight. There was much sighing and flopping onto the furniture to stare into space despondently. I imagine she'll probably survive.

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You Are Creative

You are a fascinating person with many varied interests. You like living a less than normal life. You are easily and often inspired. It doesn't take much to get you thinking, and you love to daydream over a cup of tea. You're the type of person who puts a pot of tea on when the mood strikes you - even if it's in the middle of the night. Your signature tea: red rooibos herbal tea

The Teapot Test

That's pretty close!

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BACK! And hoping it sticks...

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. ~William Faulkner

Many thanks to Judy for keeping y'all updated (and I laughed when I saw her YouTube videos!). Our power came back on about 30 minutes ago and I'm hoping it stays on! We had about 4 - 5" of heavy, wet snow last night and are expecting more snow today and tomorrow and maybe even Monday, so I know it's tough for the power guys out there. I'm so appreciative of all their hard work.

The damage here was pretty astounding -- LOTS of really huge trees down, and branches and debris everywhere. It looked like a tornado had hit. We had power lines down in the road with trees on top of them on both major roads out of my neighborhood.

I'm just glad I can flush my toilet without having to retrieve buckets of water from the creek 150 yards out back!!

In any case, I'm back (and hoping to stay that way) but have to get working on LASR/WC stuff in the worst way, so will sign off for now. Thanks to all for your positive thoughts and comments. They were all greatly appreciated. I'm obviously far behind on blogs and touching base, and will try to catch up as soon as I can.

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Getting Back Into The Groove

Any proverbs about weather are doubly true during a storm. ~Ed Northstrum

I know that today should be Tightwad Tuesday, and it seems a shame to skip the second one in the series, but I have to be honest and say that getting a blog post together for today wasn't a top priority of late. So, TT will return next week provided God doesn't WHOMP!! New Hampshire again. Hey, here's a tightwad tip -- to save on your electric bill, don't use ANY for three days! LOL... I'll be interested to see what my usage looks like on the next cycle.

Truthfully, I'm feeling pretty lucky. This was the "ice storm" headline on the local newspaper this morning:

Hold on, it could be a long wait

And it goes on to say this:

....utility executives warned that residents who haven't had power restored as of yet should prepare to hunker down for up to a week.

There are still more than 100,000 people without power. I wish I could fit them all in my home...

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Thankfully, Judy and I had set things up for the LASR on Thursday last week, in preparation for loss of power. Mostly it went smoothly, but trying to remember what I'm supposed to be doing is tough. We're overhauling the site, and moving the reviews back to Blogger (where they were initially) to make things easier for me (yay! I like easier). Judy has created some great new website headers and I think that it's going to look awesome when it's done.

It's just getting it there that is taking the time.

In any case, I'm busy as always. I did catch up on my sleep over the weekend -- no point in getting up when there's no light, is there? I slept on the couch, near the stove both to stay toasty warm and to make sure it didn't go out, and I laid around like a lazy slug until about seven every morning! Today, 4 a.m. came really, really early.

I'm already ready for a nap.

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On the writing front, I did spend an awful lot of my down time thinking. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but I had some funny scenes pop into my head. I think I'll be working on Geoff's story (the sequel to "One Love for Liv") for JaNoWriMo which starts in... WOW... two weeks!!!

I know it's Geoff's story, but I had this idea for one scene that involves Liv ... and, oddly, I suspect Liv's father is going to have a bigger role in this book than in hers. I can't decide if I want the heroine and her family to own and run a holistic healing kind of store (with herbs and oils and crystals) or an educational one, lol. I know, I know ... it's a pretty big difference, but they're fairly closely linked in my brain for some reason.

I need to do a collage, too. Hmmm....

And, I am still vacillating on my "Stiller Creek" story. Do I amp up the suspense and submit to one line, or bring the mystery/suspense down a bit and submit to another? Either way means a lot of editing, which is my absolute least favorite part about writing.

AND... I gave more thought to Camilla's story, "The Possibility of Forever" (formerly "Camilla's Critters") and how I might could change Jed from being an out-of-towner to a local... but that changes the entire dynamic. And, I am trying to decide if I can just have him break a leg and a couple of ribs when he is hurt. Oy.

Still no news from Womans World. I'm getting a little nervous and sick to my tummy...

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Your Snow Test Says You're Independent

You feel like something good will happen to you in the next few days. You have an amazingly strong work ethic. You are likely to be very successful in life. You are an independent, individualistic person. You thrive when you're doing your own thing. Your biggest worry in life is your family. You stay up at night thinking about them. When it comes time to relax, you have difficulty relaxing. You are a bit high strung.

The Snow Test

That's mostly on track... don't know about the "something good will happen" -- I already have power back? How much better can it get? Otherwise, yeah...

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I'm B-A-A-A-A-A-A-C-K!!!

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. ~G.K. Chesterton

YAHOO!

Best sound in the world, bar none? My refrigerator kicking on a couple hours ago. Ahhh... the hum...

Totally made my day.

And, to celebrate (...are you ready?...) I FLUSHED THE POTTY!! Woot!

Seriously, folks, it's the little things. And, of everything that was affected by the power outage, that was by FAR the most inconvenient. Every muscle in my body aches from hauling water (in a 10 gallon bucket) 200 yards from the creek to the house about five or six times a day.

Lots more people still don't have power (Ceri, here's hoping you're not one of those -- thanks for leaving a comment, I was worried since your town was hit pretty hard) ... and I really feel for them. I can't believe all the trees and branches and debris everywhere. Just down the road, a HUGE oak fell -- roots and all -- and missed the house nearby by only a few feet. TONS of birch trees are history (including several in our yard) and pine trees were a big loser in the storm.

Kudos to the electric company folks for kicking butt. There must be just tons of wires and poles down. They are doing an amazing job. I very nearly kissed the guys from PSNH that drove past a little bit ago.

In any case, I have several hundred emails to sift through and just incredible amounts of work to do for LASR, so I'll sign off for now.

Just wanted to let you know that I HAVE POWER. It's truly a blessing.

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Here... sort of...

Hey there -- Marianne here. Sort of.

I traveled many, many miles out of town to my SIL's place to have a shower and steal some internet.

Our town (proper) has power, but we don't. In fact, they don't expect our residential area to have power until Monday, at least. The Wendy's a-ways up the road has WiFi, so I may visit them tomorrow for a bit if need be.

All the trees here are still ice covered.

I miss flushing my potty. I miss showers.

But really, we're all good -- we have our woodstove for heat, the camping stove for cooking, and the garage for a fridge. We packed our chest freezer with ice and closed it and have our fingers crossed.

I'll be back when I can.