Hey guess what?

I now live in a certified disaster area. How about that?

So power was finally restored to Casa Fuzzies last night at 11:30. I was sound asleep, then woke to a chorus of beeps and whirs as my cook stove, Toyo, alarm clock, refrigerator, et cetera came stirring back to life. I had been without power since Wednesday, living by candlelight and the wood stove. On Friday, most of my neighborhood got power back, and knowing that only five homes (including mine) remained in the dark, I worried that I'd fall to lower on the priority list. But, oh heck, why complain? At least I had a wood stove to keep warm, and no water pipes to worry about busting. DL, with whom I had planned weekend work travel, had plumbing to worry about, so we weren't sure until the last minute that he could go. His power came on at the last hour, so we high-tailed it out of town and were rewarded with a pleasant community meeting, a data dump from one of our biomass boilers in a different community, and a stupendously beautiful drive:





Here is the full moon setting in Gulkana:


When we got back, my unheated house was ccccccooooollllldddd. I called the Bs to let them know I had returned safely but was still in the dark. The conversation proceeded thusly:

"I'm ho-ome!"

DB: Do you have power back?

"No. It's really cold in here! I just lit a big ol' fire!"

DB: Well, come over! It's warm here! And we have dinner, and you can shower!

"But I can't leave this big roaring fire! I need to stay here, keep it going, and make sure it stays under control."

JB: I'll go over and tend your fire. Come over here.

"Ohh... awww... but I... couldn't... You don't have to do that! It's freaking cold in here!"

JB: Well, we've always thought of you as one of our kids, and we didn't get you until you were an adult, so we never got to spoil you. Let us spoil you now!"

Awwwwwwwww...

So, I went over for dinner and a shower and came home to a nice toasty house.

Later, a GVEA crew showed up on my street. It took four trucks and eight linemen. I called and reported back to DL:

"There are linemen in front of my house! I'll get power back soon! Yay!"

DL: Oh good. Go out there and offer them hot chocolate. Make sure they stay warm on the job.

I thought that was brilliant, and started to walk up to talk to them. Then I remembered something JB had told me the prior weekend. There had been some friends over helping me on a project, and I was offering to toast cheese on Pilot Bread for them, and they were all declining. JB said, "Just make it anyway. People will eat it then."

It was an excellent point. Most people will decline out of politeness if they think they will make more work for you, but if it's already there, they'll take it.

So I took a cardboard box lid and set ten styrofoam cups on it, and filled half with tea and the other half with hot chocolate and carried it out to the linemen. Sure enough, it disappeared right quick.

I just turned 36, and I'm still learning how to be a good person. I'm fortunate that I always have good people around me to show me the way!