Thankful 2012

My dad always says that Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday.  When I was a little girl, I found this claim suspect.  There was no Santa, no Easter Bunny, no gifts at all on Thanksgiving.  Just a lot of (admittedly) good food and the company of family.  Nice, of course.  But clearly a second tier holiday in my eight-year-old estimation.

These days, I can see why my dad likes Thanksgiving so much.  There's the food, of course.  But it's so much more than that.  Thanksgiving is a chance to sit at a table with loved ones, enjoy a meal together, and pause to be thankful for the blessings in our lives.

This year, as we are still cleaning up after the hurricane, I've many blessings to count and I am filled with gratitude for them all.   I'm thankful for a warm, sturdy home.

I'm thankful for old man tree, a tall and strong sentinel on duty in the backyard.

I'm thankful for the electricity, warmth, and light that made this meal possible.

And I'm glad of friends and family both near and far.  They share joys and anxieties, laughter and tears.  They are the biggest blessing in my life.  

Whatever life has brought you this year, I hope that today you can count at least a few blessings. Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Hurricane Journal: In the Cold

In the midst of our extended period without electricity, around day seven, a friend of mine had a thought that really lingered with me.  "The first two days without electricity are fun," C said, "and then reality sets in."  For us, it was a very cold reality.  In hindsight, the days rather blur together in my mind.  Now, more than three weeks since the storm, the eight days we spent without power seem like a lost week.

As the cold settled in, the temperature of my house steadily declined.  When I have electricity, I listen to NPR for hours at a time.  Without the radio, the steady sound of my day was the whir of generators in town, a loudly humming noise that was a reminder of our lack of power.  JT spent some time tuning in my Eton crank-fueled radio and by Wednesday morning I could once again hear the sounds of WNYC, my local public radio station. 

Once the radio was operational, we had company again.  And it was company on the form of actual news and facts instead of the over-the-fence rumor mongering and anxiety that had quickly taken hold in the absence of solid information.  I could learn about the damage elsewhere and hear about the help that had already arrived.  My town and its authorities, who had been so useful in Hurricane Irene, were pretty useless in the period after this storm.  Warming and charging stations would have been welcome by Wednesday evening, but it took until Friday night for our town to make them available.  As temperatures sank and gasoline proved scarce, people became increasingly anxious.  Though it wasn't the case for anyone I knew, the radio assured me that others lacked food and water.   T and I checked in with each other a couple times every day, though our need to keep our phones charged meant that long conversations were not an option.  I had to start my car to charge my cell phone, which was a lifeline to friends and loved ones as well as my sister KO's daily power company updates.  The cell phone also kept me informed about school cancellation, which was handled on a day-by-day basis as the school also waited for electricity.

As it became clear to me that we were going to be a long time without power, I headed up to the attic to find my Nebraska-rated bedding, which I layered on to our beds.  On top of the flannel sheets went a warm blanket.

And then a down comforter wrapped in a flannel duvet.

On top of that was a quilt, to hold in the warmth of the down.  The beds looked like a stuffed goose, but underneath those heavy covers we were very warm as we slept.

For a couple of those cold nights, a friend who lives in town and I combined forces to share suppers and warmth.  Thanks to natural gas, we both had the ability to take hot showers and cook on our gas stoves.  My house faces north and didn't get much passive heat during the cold days, but M's house faces east, with windows to the south and her living room was much warmer in the cold evenings.  On Friday, M scored some bags of ice which we used to keep a little cold food.  Between the ice and night temperatures in the 30s, I was able to keep milk, cheese, eggs, and a newly-opened jar of mayo.  Somehow, this made me feel more civilized.

That same afternoon, I called PSE&G for an electricity restoration update and the automatic service told me that our power would be restored by the next day at 3 pm.  JT and I were euphoric and that night the cold seemed easier to bear.  But come 3 pm on Saturday, there was no power.  My sister learned from the PSE&G website that we were now slated for restoration in the following week.  It's not an exaggeration to say that I greeted this news with desperation.  Worn out by the cold, JT and I threw caution to the wind, fired up the car, and went over to a local mall for a few hours.  We came home to a cold, black darkness and my anxiety began to rise.  That night, T, herself still without power, persuaded me to visit some friends with electricity for the day, and I fell asleep thinking about a plan for Sunday.  The next three days found us traveling about, seeking warmth and charged electronics.  And that's a story for another day.

My Word!

I started writing this blog in the spring of 2006 and for more than six years I have managed to blather on about my life with a regularity that has surely frightened at least some of you.  The lack of new postings in the last week surprises me at least as much as it must thrill the Internet.  Suffice it to say that I was busy, busy, busy.  But as of this afternoon I am on a much-needed Thanksgiving Break, time I will use to rest and get caught up with a whole bunch of things, including this blog.

In the meantime, we are happy and well at Sassafras House and looking forward to a quiet Thanksgiving.  We've blessings large and small to be grateful for and I intend to celebrate them all.   But first I'm going to get some sleep and try to crawl out from underneath the pile of laundry that has consumed my home.

Hurricane Journal: The Day After

When I awakened on the morning of October 30, the rain had stopped and the winds were gone.  Unlike the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, which dawned sunny and spectacular, this day was cloudy and grey.  It was cool outside, with temps just in the 50s.  JT was still asleep but I went outside to look up and down the street.  My neighbors were there and we compared notes.  Tree branches were down everywhere; like me, my neighbors were without power.  In the next few hours, I would discover that there was no power in our town and not in nearby towns either.  I called the utility company to report the outage and the automated system informed me that my electricity would be restored by Monday, November 5th.  In hindsight, that was my first inkling that the storm had been massive, though I glossed over the fact at the time.  When we had lost power in Irene, they had warned us it would be gone for 5 days and we were restored in 3.  Surely this wouldn't be worse?

I came inside to a functioning gas stove and the ability to make coffee.  While the water boiled, I grabbed the bags of ice I had earlier stored in the freezer, and moved food from my fridge to the ice chest, which I stored on my front porch.  What I couldn't save, I threw out.  I saved the ice cream for JT's breakfast.  When he got up, I let him eat it from the carton, an indulgence he is always asking for but receives only in the aftermath of hurricanes.  We took a walk around town and began to get a sense of the extent of the damage.  There were downed trees and tree branches everywhere, so much so that sights like these could be seen in too many front yards to count.

Larger trees and power poles also came down, including more than a half dozen on one of the main streets out of our town.  This picture is from a distance because there were power lines down for a length of two blocks and I didn't want my 12 year old anywhere near them.

One block north of my street, an enormous tree came down.  You can see the root ball in this photo.  This tree took out a fence and a garage, but missed the houses it stood between.

Farther down the same street, another tree crushed a car.

I'm not sure that there is any way to really explain the volume of the trees that fell in my town, let alone the way things looked in the aftermath.  In some instances, like this one two blocks west of me, houses were damaged (there is a flattened dormer window under that tree).

By the time JT and I returned home from our first post-hurricane outing, we were sobered by what we had seen.  We felt incredibly lucky.  Our messy front porch and one bent piece of trim were nothing to worry about compared to what other folks had experienced.

Later that day, we set to work tuning in our hand-crank radio so that we could get some news and information about the rest of our area.  That's a story for another day.

Hurricane Journal: The Storm Itself

On October 28, a Sunday afternoon, just as the very edge of the hurricane winds were starting, JT and I drove my parents to the airport for their flight back to California.  When we got home, word that school was cancelled for Monday came via e-mail.   But other than the bits of wind and the ominous forecast, nothing happened.  Sunday need up being an anxious day of preparation for the unexpected.  I washed every bit of laundry I could find, charged up my cell phone, and hoped for the best.  For reasons of logistics, T and I were riding out the storm separately.  She lives in the woods and was practically guaranteed to lose electricity, though with a generator to help out.  Previous storms, including Hurricane Irene, had us convinced that the aftermath of this storm would be harder in her area than mine, and I have cats and my beloved home to look after, so JT and I couldn't just re-locate to her house.

Monday morning dawned dark and windy.  On and off throughout the day we had light rain.  Winds picked up steadily and at some point I realized that I could hear it blowing all the time.  By 4 pm, the local weather was reporting that Sandy was moving a little faster than expected.  The storm was upon the shore with winds in excess of 70 miles per hour and would soon be upon us.  Darkness came and the winds steadily picked up but we still had lights.  I kept expecting the winds to be joined by heavy rain but that never materialized.  As it was, the winds were enough to do some pretty colossal damage and we are incredibly lucky that the rain wasn't as heavy as the forecasters had feared.

Even as I grew confident that my basement wouldn't flood (and it never did), I began to fret about trees and the power lines.  Unlike my native California, power lines around here are above ground.  I could stand in my living room and watch the swinging lines to my house, a pretty frightening way to spend your storm hours.  At 8 pm, after one last flicker, the lights went out.  Winds were now sustained with gusts blowing over them (I later learned that some of those gusts were in excess of 80 mph…..I can believe it).  In the darkness, we could only hear the storm and the sounds were terrifying.  A piece of siding trim blew down off the house and then crashed about in the driveway until  ran outside in the dark to grab it before it could do more damage.  JT and I played cards and then went to bed to read in the darkness and listen to the storm.  To my complete surprise, I was able to sleep.  Now that the worst was upon us and I knew what it would be like, I was oddly relieved.  I woke at some point in the middle of the night and the wind was gone.  All I could hear was the sound of light rain.  I slept through the rest of the night, relieved that the worst was over.

Hurricane Journal

I write every day in my journal.  For some years now, my journal has been on my computer.  Some of what I write serves as fodder for my blog and the blog itself is a kind of journal.  In the midst of the hurricane and the power loss that followed, charging my MacBook was not an option.  So I had to revert to a paper journal again.  It felt all sorts of old-fashioned to be writing on paper.  It was oddly comforting to be doing something so familiar, albeit in a now-unfamiliar fashion.  All told, we were without power for eight days, some of them quite cold.   I wrote every day.  The storm happened two weeks ago tomorrow and for the next few days I will post some excerpts from my Hurricane journal.  

In the hours leading up to Hurricane Sandy's on-shore arrival, I wrote a few postings about storm anticipation.  Here is what I wrote on Sunday the 28th.  On the day of the storm, I posted two small pieces before we lost electricity.  Those can be found here and here.

 I slept pretty poorly for the nights leading up to the storm, lying in bed running through my preparation lists and hyper-aware of every unusual sound.  My storm prep was actually done as of Saturday afternoon.  Then came an extended dance mix of waiting.  More about that tomorrow.

Real Life Conversations with KO: Equality edition

The backstory: I love Keen shoes because they are so comfortable.  My sister KO is convinced that a fondness for sensible shoes is one of the many signs that I am a lesbian. To which I respond, "guilty."

KO:  Wearing my red lace-up Keens today.  Hope I don't turn gay.

Me:  You can get married in 3 more states if that's how it plays out.  Or get elected to the Senate.  Both worth considering

KO:  It's about freakin' time.

Sassafras family values rule.

Adding Insult to Injury

Yesterday's restored power found me happily back to my household routines.  I drank my morning coffee brewed in my magical electric coffee pot,  I went to the market for some fresh food (milk, fresh veggies and deli, oh my!), ran the dishwasher, washed clothes, took some of the heavy bedding off our beds, vacuumed, and cleaned things up.  I thought about putting my candles and flashlights away but refrained, mindful of the Nor'easter headed our way.

Turns out that was a wise choice.  The snow was falling by mid-day and JT headed out to play.  He was delighted by this turn of events because he loves to play in the snow.  I was worried.

As the evening came on, the snow kept falling, and the winds picked up.  Another piece of trim blew off my house.  Our lights flickered around 7 pm and then at 8:30, everything went dark.  It would be fair to say that I rather lost my mind at that point.  We took to our beds and I let despair lull me to sleep.  Around 1:30 am I was awakened by the brightness of the hallway light.  At first, I thought it was just a dream.  Then I sat up and realized that it was a dream come true.  The lights were back and my house never even had time to get cold again.  I shot downstairs to check out my neighborhood's glowing porch lights and plug in JT's iPad.  Then I returned to bed with a most happy heart.

This morning the winds are gone and the sun is already melting our fresh snow.  I can afford to be cheerful.  Mother Nature, if you are reading, I get it.  You can count on my support in this whole global warming debate.

An Electrifying Night

At Sassafras House, my election day birthday dawned cold and a little bleak.  It was our 8th morning without electricity.  Though I had great confidence that Obama would secure re-election, I  expected a day of nervous waiting.  The polls looked good, Nate Silver was giving me terrific odds, and yet I wasn't in a mood to count on much.  I've been disappointed on election day birthdays in the past, most notably in 1984, when Ronald Reagan swept the nation and defeated Walter Mondale.  When you care about politics as much as I do, you hate to make assumptions.

JT and I headed off to a local diner for breakfast and then I voted in a FEMA-powered temporary polling station.  For the afternoon, we joined the T-N family for companionship, heat, and electricity.  I began to troll the web for exit-poll data.  I was anxiously hopeful.  After supper, we had some birthday cake and as I blew out the candles I opted for my nation and wished for an Obama victory instead of power for my home.  

We turned on the telly at 8 pm to watch poll returns.  As polls in the east closed, the southern states provided numbers for Romney's column, but that was hardly surprising.  New York and New Jersey were predictably blue.  Pennsylvania was good.  Then, more surprisingly, New Hampshire went for Obama.  Soon the numbers began to shift in Obama's direction.  As I began to relax in the surety of an Obama victory, my friend M, who also lives in my town, texted that she had power.  I called my home and heard the re-assuring voice of my answering machine and I knew that I too was back on the grid.

Within the hour, JT and I drove home, confident that the day had brought us a whole lot of blessings.  We switched on the furnace and settled in to watch more swing states line up on the blue side of the equation.  Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico…the news was good and getting better.  We stayed up late, determined to watch Romney's concession and see November 6 out on a much happier note than it had begun.  Electricity and an Obama victory?  In one day?  Our cup overfloweth.

Later this week, I'll have some thoughts about what Obama's re-election means.  Hint: the numbers in Congress may be virtually the same, but the game has changed, a fact Republicans must understand and acknowledge.  But today is for celebrating the blessings of democracy, citizenship, electricity, and four more years of an Obama White House.  We are blessed.

Empowered Democracy or Why I Support President Obama

Today is election day.  It's also the 8th day that my New Jersey town is without power.  In the midst of some pretty bleak conditions, we were able to vote, thanks to a FEMA-provided generator used to power our fire station and our electronic voting booths.

In another universe, I intended to write a post today about why I am hoping for a Barack Obama victory in this election.  I had a long list of Obama successes to highlight.  But in light of the current state of life in New Jersey, I think just one example will do.  That example is the work of FEMA in our state, including the generator it provided to power democracy for my small town today.  Mitt Romney has called for privatization of disaster relief, an idea that is so hopelessly ignorant and out of touch that I can hardly fathom what he must be thinking.  

President Obama understands that we all flourish when we support one another.   He knows that ours is a government by and for the people; that it is the institution that can make all of our lives better.  He has done right by this nation for the past four years and we need him for the next four.  I voted for a little more hope and change today.  I hope that you will consider doing the same.

11:11 pm
Networks are starting to call this race for President Obama and we came home to a house with electricity.  Amazing election day and one hell of a birthday. This is a November 6 I will never forget.