Hearth And Home

Day 59: What little snow we had disappeared overnight as temperatures rose slightly and rain moved in. I should have known what was coming next. Yep, power outage. A month or so ago, our little rural PUD sent out a letter of apology to every single one of its customers for the number of outages we've had recently. The fault lies primarily with aging infrastructure which they're working on replacing, but they also promised to be more aggressive with tree-trimming and keeping power lines clear. What happened today might not have been preventable even so. As I understand it, a tree fell on the substation and knocked out power up the whole valley, and all 1600 of us were left in the dark from 7:15 AM to 4 PM as the crews worked to repair the damage. It must have been bad, considering that not too long ago, they rebuilt a whole transmission tower in a shorter period of time. At any rate, it was yet another day of camping out in the living room and a "hearth and home" day of weaving at the bonker loom and reading. When I finally did resort to turning on the gas fireplace, the Heat Sink was grateful and moved off my lap to rest his head on the warm slates.