Camping In

Day 95: You all know about "camping out." Well, yesterday, I found myself in the unenviable position of "camping in." A combination of wind and snow had been playing hob with my power since early morning, the lights flickering on and off as globs of wet, heavy snow fell from branches and impacted lines. The Park was being hit hard with trees down across the road, and employee access was being limited to essential personnel. For some mysterious reason, my internet was live but my land line refused to give a dial tone; since the two are intimately linked, I was baffled. Then at 4:30, the Weather Gods delivered its hardest blow and my power went out. Now normally, lighting the propane fireplace for the first time each winter is a half-hour process requiring all my father's best tractor-starting words. It surprised me by igniting on my first request. That said, I have a limited supply of propane, so I closed doors to all nonessential rooms, turned the flame down low and settled myself into a nest of blankets and pillows to wait out the siege. I'd had the foresight to charge both Kindles, so I had games to play, and a "pocket light switch" I'd been given by a friend a few years ago supplied enough light to read a library book. However, needlework was out of the question and therefore I was mightily annoyed. Right before bedtime, the lights came back on, but land line, internet and cell phone were as dead as the proverbial doornail. Nor were any of those services available to me when I got up this morning. Roughly half an hour ago, my internet came back to life, but not the phone. Huh? Remember, I live in the Back of Beyond. Internet depends on a functioning land line. It is impossible to access it without working phone service. Typical of CenturyLink, they can't explain it either, but they're sending somebody out to take a look, but not today.

Some Days...

Day 9: Ever have one of Those Days when you don't even feel like you should bother shaving? I was awakened some time between 4 and 5 AM by what sounded like a gunshot. It took me a second to realize that the dim light of my digital clock wasn't brightening the bedroom. Yeah, I should have known that was coming. We had a wind-and-rain storm last night, and the power had gone out. It wasn't particularly cold, so I just pulled the covers up over my head and went back to sleep. Our PUD (Public Utility District) is large geographically but serves a significantly smaller number of people proportionately than, say, Tacoma City Light. When the lights go out, they're usually only out for an hour or two. I figured I'd have power again by breakfast time.

I was wrong. When I got up, the house had cooled down substantially. I was going to have to argue with the propane fireplace whether I wanted to or not. It's invariably cranky the first time I light it up each year, and today was no exception. Once I got it to stay lit, I settled into my chair to crochet by headlamp. Ten minutes into a row, the fire sputtered and went out, a new variation on its normal recalcitrance. I struggled with it for twenty minutes but when I couldn't get it to re-light, I decided to let it rest for a bit before trying again. I figured there might have been some water condensation in the line. Eventually, I got it to light and stay on, but at 11 o'clock, I still didn't have power.

I don't usually like to bother PUD Dispatch, but since this was an unusually long outage for us, I thought I'd better call. The dispatcher was surprised by the news. He'd already sent his crews home after a rough night because they'd reported that all repair tickets were completed. He told me he'd have to try to round up "somebody who's home" (remember, this is Sunday), but assured me that I would have my lights back by evening.

At 4, I called again to see if he'd made any progress on finding a repairman. He had, and they'd tried to reach me, but the road between Morton and Elbe was washed out. He was sending a crew the long way around, i.e., through Chehalis, Tenino and Yelm. "They'll be there in a few hours," he said. When the crew finally arrived, it took them all of five minutes to remove the branches from the line and replace the fuse which had blown. The outage had only affected me and my two neighbours, and neither of them had called in. If I had only called Dispatch immediately, I wouldn't have had to spend my day in the gloom.

Christmas Greetings!

Day 73: You might think that a Christmas tree decorated largely with birds would be more temptation than any two cats should be asked to endure, but although I caught Skunk patting one of the lower ornaments, Tip is content to observe politely. Both of them have been known to investigate bows and ribbons, dragging lightweight gifts out into the middle of the floor, but they've been very well behaved this year. My good kitties and I would like to wish you all the most merry Christmas!