for some values of normal

The power came back on at two in the morning on Wednesday!! I flushed the toilet out of sheer joie de vivre! As of eighty-thirty, the internet was still having difficulties, so I will go turn the router off and on a few times after I have drunken my freshly made hot tea and perhaps had a shower! It's italics time all over; well, over all but about 80,000 of 400,000+ households. For whom it may be after Christmas before they get their power back.

I did not mention that my parents had obtained me a little pack of four Coleman four-Double A-battery lanterns, which looked like toys or lights for pagans wishing to set up a circle in an area of high winds (four colors). They also gave me a package of 32 AA batteries. I was pleased but surprised to find they were really good and each gave as much light as my reliable Czech railway lanterns. And no chimneys to clean, no fear of inadvertently spilling kerosene and provoking a fiery disaster (Not quite as romantic and not so easy to know when one is running out of fuel, either). But I was surprised how lighthearted the lanterns made me.

So soon I will throw away a few things from the refrigerators and --

oh yeah, so far I have something over three inches of white fluffy snow with more and some freezing rain to come. Gibber. How winterwonderland for the visitor from California.

Now it's Friday. The snow (10" - 14") is not supposed to start until this afternoon, and it's supposed to be over after midnight, and Paul has promised to come plow me out so I can go to New Jersey. If it is completely Apocalyptic (Fimbulwinter) we will see if we need to send in a ringer from MA. And something else is supposed to happen on Sunday, and I am supposed to get back on Monday. I feel the weather is getting out of hand. And Christmas. Could we just take a deep breath and a few days off?




Pictures:
Some of these (there are a lot of black and white photos here, no captions) are just lovely, the trees and fences in snow and some of New York. I am not as much a fan of the chimneys, but I can see why he liked them.