Long Weekend

Time to get little projects done like trying to get some of the dust bunnies lurking under the bed and in corners into the vacuum and some of the clutter out, creating a little nook with a new chair and my laptop on the leaf of my nightstand, getting right of bags of clothing that had been packed up a weekend (or two) ago and cleaning out the pantry to make room for my mother's china.

Time to work, no time to write.  I have become a very lazy blogger, with drafts of posts piling up on my blog post list.  Spring is busy and exhausting, too many activities and too much pollen.  (Written in April 2013.)

Post-Hurricane Recovery

 OK, so I am not a meteorological genius (referencing my previous post.)

Our power went out at 8:23 pm Monday night, so it lasted 23 minutes longer than my prediction of darkness descending at 8 pm.  It spent  ten minutes or so flickering and toying with us before the final outage.   It had been raining all day on Monday, but it wasn't until after dark that the wind really started raging.  Fortunately I had finished both squares of my Saturday Sampler homework at 8:00 pm.

Monday night wasn't much for sleeping, at least for me. Too much noise.  The trains running on the Northeast Corridor tracks behind our house had stopped, but the wind sounded like a continuous train running through the backyard.

Tuesday was spent occupying the kids so they did not run down the batteries on their Nintendos and iPods since we were told it could possibly be a week without power.

School was cancelled for Wednesday, and Princeton University also decided to close for a third day.  (And the watch for signs that Hell was going to freeze over began.)

Dinner was leftovers heated on the stove.  Pizza, believe it or not, can be reheated without an oven by inverting a vegetable steamer over boiling water, and it helps that the pizza was a little stale.  Micah ate four pieces of it.  This Little House on Krebs Road approach to cooking was getting a bit old, though.

Wednesday morning I got up and went to work, where there was power, so I had every device I own that has a battery - minus a power strip, which would have come in handy.  It's Hallowe'en and I originally wanted to be home for trick-or-treating so I asked for a half-day, and this was an act of genius, because right as I was finishing my last patients of the morning. . . .

. . . the power went o-u-t at work.  Seriously.  Sense of irony and sense of humor were wearing fairly thin.

Lovely, just bleeping lovely because with no power, the server for the EHR system goes down so I can't even write my chart notes from home.  Though I was a bit of genius for requesting that afternoon off (for the now cancelled Hallowe'en); no patients needing rescheduling for me.

Route 1 had most of the traffic lights out still, long lines at the gas stations that were open.  The Dunkin' Donuts was not open. (Hell must really be ready to freeze over.)

West Windsor-Plainsboro schools were out the entire week.  By Sunday night eight out of ten schools had power, but  the district offices had no power or phones, and one upper elementary school and one middle school were still without electricity so the district arranged accommodation for those schools at two large churches.

Soccer on Saturday went on as usual, and Sunday's GoalFest/GhoulFest which had been rescheduled also took place.  Neither kid came home with a trophy this year, which was probably a good learning experience for them.  They had great teams, but there weren't enough 4th and 5th graders for individual teams, so the league made a Girls 4-6 level for GoalFest.  Which meant my delicate little 4th grader had to go up against 6th grade Amazons riding a wave of premenstrual fury.  It was just not right that nine-year olds had to go up against adolescents with attitude wearing orange tutus (those damn tutus hid quite a bit of hip checking.).

Steve is getting a generator as his Hanukkah/Christmas present, and I am going to by a few dozen "D" cell batteries.   I will be better than prepared for the next one.

Once upon a hurricane. . .

Hurricane Sandy.  I'm not a believer yet.  I don't think the impact is going to be significant this far inland.

The impact on the weekend was significant:

On Saturday we found out that the GoalFest 3v3 Tournament schedule for Sunday was cancelled due to the weather.

What weather?  It was grey all day and a little chillier than usual.

And there have been no "D" cell batteries at Target since Thursday.

Sunday Micah's Tiger Cub Pack was scheduled to go on the 3:00 pm tour of Rockingham, George Washington's headquarters in NJ.

But all the state parks in New Jersey closed at noon today.  Because of the weather.

Seriously?  Not a raindrop has fallen at this point, and the wind was barely above a breeze.

So once home from our failed Rockingham adventure  I felt compelled to check out the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district web site and found all schools would be closed on Monday AND Tuesday.

And then, Steve called to say that he got a auto-dial message from Princeton University telling him that it would be closed tomorrow.  The university that almost never, ever closes, that has made him drive to work in heavy snow and ice. 

What the hell?  Is the world coming to an end?  Really?

To ice the cake, there was an email from my office telling us that it would also be closed on Monday AND Tuesday.

And still rather than feeling a sense of impending doom, I am still not fully convinced that it will amount to anything signficant around here.  The patio chairs and grill are in the garage, the trash can is inside.  We have enough food for a few days that doesn't require significant preparation if we lose power.

I'll amend this tomorrow, in my mind at least, if  and when the power goes out. 

Let it the rain come, let the wind blow.  My panties remain un-bunched.

Quilting Class and Hurricane Irene

Saturday at Olde City Quilts in Burlington, NJ.  I made this!  Start to finish in one afternoon.  It's going to be on its way to my mother so she can have an indoor pumpkin without worrying about when it will turn to mush.  Thank you, Eva, who taught the class and who has the patience of a saint and many, many little tips and tricks that I hope I will remember.

The classroom at OCQ was crowded today.  While the Glorious Fall class was sewing away on one side, there was a group making quilt tops for Quilts of Valor.

My light-bulb moment for today was that quilters are nice people, I have met any surly, evil or mean-spirited people (with the exception of me and my classmates in the Learn-to-Quilt class the night we did machine appliqueing, but we came to class in  good moods) at the quilt shop.  Everyone tries to help each other, share and offer encouragement. 

The tide going out in the backyard.  The water was all the way up to the patio wall Sunday morning.

The far backyard swamp.

Checking out the backyard as the tide goes out.

What bored people without electricity do, manscaping.

Thea's watercolor rendering of her guinea pig, Gallileo

Sunday afternoon walk, something else to do when the electricity is out.

Thea's shot of the backyard Sunday morning, the sliver at the center back of the photo is the seat of a concrete bench.

Saturday night Hurricane Irene took our electricity sometime after 11 pm.  Kids were in bed, I was in the family room with my flashlight (still in its packaging) was on the stairs.  Nothing to do but put the batteries in the flashlight and go to bed.  In the year we've lived here, the power has never been out for very long.  Until now.  We were without power until the early hours of Tuesday morning.  Monday I went off to work with all my devices and their respective chargers.  Electricity, it turns out, is my Achilles heel.  I have a Kindle (with great battery life), laptops (so-so battery life), a Blackberry, an iPad and a camera and I love them all.  No more East Coast hurricanes, for this year at least, please.

No matter, we survived, give or take a few shreds of sanity or a few brain cells hear or there.  Overall we're lucky, I would not want to be living in Vermont right now.  Camp is over, we had a week at work with only two or three providers working, time to welcome the Labor Day holiday weekend.  

Hurricane Irene, Part 2

Rain, rain, rain, rain.

And where is my family?

Out driving in the rain.

Meanwhile we have enough food to feed an army.

No air-conditioning.

Humidity or barometric pressure that is crucifying my sinuses.

Hurricane Agnes.  Much more fun when I was 12 and clueless as to the potential consequences.

Hurricane Floyd:  Umbrella stolen while I was working.  In a prision.  No honor among thieves or them work to incarcerate them.

Time to fill the bathtub.  And thanks to this house, we only have one.

And find my flashlight.  Power had flickered, but has managed to stay on.  For now.

Hurricane Irene

It will either be the worst meteorological event on the East Coast in decades or a whole lot of nothing, but either way, I went to Target this morning and bought a whole lot of somethings to ride out the storm without risk of starvation and thirst.  Retail America benefits on the panic of the masses.

I even bought a pair of galoshes (on sale!) for me.  I remember walking through thigh deep water during Hurricane Agnes in 1972 wearing sandals.  Ick, ick and double ick.  That will not happen again.

I also got the two of the last three flashlights at the Target in Princeton.  Batteries included, thank goodness, because there is not a D-cell to be had anywhere in the greater Princeton-Plainsboro region.