It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas~... and it's barely Halloween!
This.... is rather crazy, actually. It snowed on Saturday. And I do not mean just a little snow, or an ordinary 'first snowfall'. This was a long storm (it started before Archi went to work and was still going when he came home) which dropped several inches of thick, wet, HEAVY snow.
Thing is, it's so early in the season that most of the trees still have most of their leaves--or did. So of course the snow got caught more than normal, and the trees not being ready for winter... there are a LOT of downed branches and even whole trees that snapped or fell.
I had a bit of a scare while Archi was at work. There's a big tree out in front of our house that's right next to the electric pole, and hangs over the wires...in addition to at least one or two largish branches that hang over the house itself. I live on the third floor, so anything that hit the roof would affect my place first (top floor). Well, part of the big tree caught fire, and the top of the electric pole caught fire... and apparently the fire department couldn't do anything about it since it was an electrical fire. (My neighbor on the second floor called 911. I called the electric company at about the same time to report branches on/endangering the line, because I had a different angle and didn't see the fire.) When we made the calls, we still had power (somehow). That lasted...um...half an hour or so? And then the power went out and I ran around unplugging everything, tossed things in bags in case I needed to call someone to get out of my place fast...
I ended up spending a few hours hanging out with my downstairs neighbor because neither of us wanted to sit around alone in the dark, especially with that tree freaking us out, and no real response from 911 or the electric company. Yeah, I understand that the electric company was busy trying to deal with a LOT of other people out of power (more than 40,000 in my city alone, not to mention thousands more in other cities around the state) but... couldn't someone (firemen?) at least drop by to take a look and reassure us that we'd be OK?
It didn't help anything that I couldn't get hold of my husband at work. So I called my parents. They....pretty much laughed at me flipping out about the tree on fire (this was before it started doing what sounded/looked like minor explosions every 5 minutes or so for at least a half-hour, until the power cut off) and told me that if the 911 people weren't worried about it I shouldn't be worried either. "Yeah, that doesn't help..."
Archi came home around 1am (this is normal) and had trouble getting into the driveway. We made him look to see if he could tell what had hit the house (about a half-hour or so earlier we'd felt/heard SOMETHING hit the house, but we couldn't figure out where--did no interior damage on the second or third floors and we couldn't check the first floor because the family that lives there was out). Maybe whatever it was landed on the roof, but we couldn't tell--certainly not in the dark. I brought him a shovel so he could dig out far enough to get back to our normal parking spot, and then we all headed to bed.
Tried to look at things in the light of day and realized that there's really not an angle at which we can easily SEE the roof to tell if something landed on it. Friends of ours who have a house in another town invited us over to share warmth (they had no power, but they have a wood-burning fireplace which would at least provide heat). So we hung out there for most of the day, sharing food and warmth and having fun, chatting... it was good.
Curled up last night with more cold darkness, and woke up again to a freezing apartment with no power. It's not just us, the whole street has no power...even the traffic lights on the on-ramp are out. (We live by an on-ramp for the highway.) I poked around a bit, getting dressed as quick as I could manage, digging out a suitcase and some clothes and whatnot for a couple days (so I'd be able to go stay somewhere warmer) and Archi stayed curled up under the covers, going "I dun wanna get up, is too cold". I finally got him out of bed, and we decided we'd better go run our errands (downtown had power so we didn't have any trouble doing a bank run) and find someplace to get some hot food. We dumped off library books, hit the banks, and then went to the bookstore hoping to get online for a bit (and get food at the cafe). Food was good....and the internet decided it did not want to cooperate with Archi. However, his mother had fortunately gotten power back last night, so we went over there and he was able to get online enough to tell people he was out of commission--possibly for the whole week.
So for the moment I'm hanging out at my mother-in-law's house, where there is warm and power and internet...and kitties who might possibly let me pet them if they wander into the living room. I am hoping the power at home comes back soon....but at the same time I'm worried about what might happen with that tree when the power does come back on....
And yes, according to the paper it might easily be a whole week before we get power again. Here's hoping it doesn't take that long. NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, and beginning the month with no electricity is going to be....interesting to say the least. Oh well. Pen and paper and flashlights still work....
Thing is, it's so early in the season that most of the trees still have most of their leaves--or did. So of course the snow got caught more than normal, and the trees not being ready for winter... there are a LOT of downed branches and even whole trees that snapped or fell.
I had a bit of a scare while Archi was at work. There's a big tree out in front of our house that's right next to the electric pole, and hangs over the wires...in addition to at least one or two largish branches that hang over the house itself. I live on the third floor, so anything that hit the roof would affect my place first (top floor). Well, part of the big tree caught fire, and the top of the electric pole caught fire... and apparently the fire department couldn't do anything about it since it was an electrical fire. (My neighbor on the second floor called 911. I called the electric company at about the same time to report branches on/endangering the line, because I had a different angle and didn't see the fire.) When we made the calls, we still had power (somehow). That lasted...um...half an hour or so? And then the power went out and I ran around unplugging everything, tossed things in bags in case I needed to call someone to get out of my place fast...
I ended up spending a few hours hanging out with my downstairs neighbor because neither of us wanted to sit around alone in the dark, especially with that tree freaking us out, and no real response from 911 or the electric company. Yeah, I understand that the electric company was busy trying to deal with a LOT of other people out of power (more than 40,000 in my city alone, not to mention thousands more in other cities around the state) but... couldn't someone (firemen?) at least drop by to take a look and reassure us that we'd be OK?
It didn't help anything that I couldn't get hold of my husband at work. So I called my parents. They....pretty much laughed at me flipping out about the tree on fire (this was before it started doing what sounded/looked like minor explosions every 5 minutes or so for at least a half-hour, until the power cut off) and told me that if the 911 people weren't worried about it I shouldn't be worried either. "Yeah, that doesn't help..."
Archi came home around 1am (this is normal) and had trouble getting into the driveway. We made him look to see if he could tell what had hit the house (about a half-hour or so earlier we'd felt/heard SOMETHING hit the house, but we couldn't figure out where--did no interior damage on the second or third floors and we couldn't check the first floor because the family that lives there was out). Maybe whatever it was landed on the roof, but we couldn't tell--certainly not in the dark. I brought him a shovel so he could dig out far enough to get back to our normal parking spot, and then we all headed to bed.
Tried to look at things in the light of day and realized that there's really not an angle at which we can easily SEE the roof to tell if something landed on it. Friends of ours who have a house in another town invited us over to share warmth (they had no power, but they have a wood-burning fireplace which would at least provide heat). So we hung out there for most of the day, sharing food and warmth and having fun, chatting... it was good.
Curled up last night with more cold darkness, and woke up again to a freezing apartment with no power. It's not just us, the whole street has no power...even the traffic lights on the on-ramp are out. (We live by an on-ramp for the highway.) I poked around a bit, getting dressed as quick as I could manage, digging out a suitcase and some clothes and whatnot for a couple days (so I'd be able to go stay somewhere warmer) and Archi stayed curled up under the covers, going "I dun wanna get up, is too cold". I finally got him out of bed, and we decided we'd better go run our errands (downtown had power so we didn't have any trouble doing a bank run) and find someplace to get some hot food. We dumped off library books, hit the banks, and then went to the bookstore hoping to get online for a bit (and get food at the cafe). Food was good....and the internet decided it did not want to cooperate with Archi. However, his mother had fortunately gotten power back last night, so we went over there and he was able to get online enough to tell people he was out of commission--possibly for the whole week.
So for the moment I'm hanging out at my mother-in-law's house, where there is warm and power and internet...and kitties who might possibly let me pet them if they wander into the living room. I am hoping the power at home comes back soon....but at the same time I'm worried about what might happen with that tree when the power does come back on....
And yes, according to the paper it might easily be a whole week before we get power again. Here's hoping it doesn't take that long. NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow, and beginning the month with no electricity is going to be....interesting to say the least. Oh well. Pen and paper and flashlights still work....