Snow Storm

 Oh man...  What an eventful couple of days.  First, let me share these sweet pictures of all my babies snuggling together.

So, up until Thursday, this was a pretty typical week for us.  Then in the wee hours of the morning, a sleet storm came through and I heard a boom at 4:30 am and the power went out.  I'd expected that might happen, based on the weather report.  So, later I informed her teachers that we didn't have power or internet, and Seth and I also had to let our supervisors know we wouldn't be able to work.  Fortunately, we have a gas stove, so I made us some bacon and eggs and coffee and we enjoyed breakfast together.  We just hung around in the morning as the temperature in the house dropped lower and lower, and after lunch we were sitting at the dining room table ready to play a board game, when we heard a huge crash and felt a rumble through the whole house.  Poor Evie was scared and ran down the hallway to hide in her room (she later said she'd thought it was the burglars coming back, so we apparently haven't completely forgotten about that event...).  What it actually was was a tree branch falling directly onto the power line and internet cables that connected our house to the whole rest of the grid. 

At that point, we knew that even if the neighborhood had power restored, it'd be a long time before we got back on because they would have to come to our specific house, remove the limb and reinstall the power cable.  And even then, we'd have to have AT&T come back out to put our internet line back in...  So we knew we'd have to find somewhere to go at least for the night because it was already uncomfortably cold in the house.

We thought about a hotel where we could take our dogs with us, but then it occurred to me that Kathy and Rickie might be willing to let us stay with them, so I called them.  They welcomed us to come over whenever we were ready, so we packed some clothes.  Evie was very upset while packing and I went to her room to try to find out what was upsetting her so much.  She said, she'd never moved before and she was nervous about it.  I tried to explain to her that we weren't moving, we were just going to stay with Kathy and Rickie for a few days until the power came back.  And then I found out that she was also scared because Seth had explained to her that because the power line was on the ground, we couldn't let the dogs outside because when the neighborhood power was back, they could get electrocuted.  She didn't quite understand that, apparently, because she then told me she needed to bring all her stuffed animals because she didn't want them to be electrocuted when the whole house got electrocuted when the power came back on.  So after explaining a little more and trying to allay her fears, she was assured that we'd be returning to the house and everything would be fine.  She left Eagle Feather, her stuffed bald eagle, in charge of the room in a lofty perch on a shelf.

We took the dogs to board at the vet and I packed up the fridge stuff I wasn't willing to lose.  Some of it I put in a box on the deck because it was going to be below freezing so it would be fine out there, and some of it that I didn't want possibly messed with by people or animals we packed to take to Kathy's, and then we headed to their house.  We got settled and really enjoyed having a meal together - it was the first indoor meal we've eaten with them since probably February last year.  Evie enjoyed playing with Luna and watching Heli from afar (the cats), and we settled into our respective spaces.  Yesterday, Evie did school from Tia's room and I worked in what used to be Grandma's sitting room.  Seth couldn't work because he has a special set up that requires either a hard line or some sort of converter thing that I couldn't possibly explain.  Seth and I ran to the house to see if the power was back (it was not) and get things from the freezer taken care of.  Today, the power came back on so we have come back home.  Evie was not happy about that either, because she thought we were going to be at Kathy's house for a week, so there was yet another change and disappointment to her.   I hate for things to be constantly shifting and changing for her, and I know she was happy getting to be around other people, especially family members.  Hopefully that will be more of a possibility soon as more and more of us get vaccinated.