Sunday, January 2, 2022

Back on the Grid

 Hello Everyone,

Oh, the weather outside has been frightful.  When I wasn't shoveling, I was tucked safely, and warmly inside the cabin.  The big lump in front of the window is the barbeque.


I curled up to read while the storm raged on outside.  


Our teenage grandsons loved sledding and snowboarding down the hill on our lot.  They did not enjoy the trek back up!


Our son did a lot of shoveling and brought wood down to the cabin for us.


Our granddaughter helped me in the kitchen fixing a ton of food to fill this hungry crew.


One of our grandsons cleared the stairs leading down to the generator. These stairs are so icy!  I want to take down the Christmas tree and put all of the decorations away, but I have to walk down the stairs to the storage area under the cabin.  I'm afraid the stairs are an accident waiting to happen.


When our grandson wasn't sledding, he was bundled up in the snow.


I call this picture Dr. Zhivago Sky.  I took this on our afternoon walk around the neighborhood.


The big lump on the right of the picture is our wood pile.  


To backtrack a bit, we spent a wonderful Christmas with our entire family in Livermore at our eldest son's house. We came back up to the cabin the day after Christmas with two grandsons, son, and granddaughter who stayed with us for two days.  They had never seen so much snow here. This is a picture of our son's truck after one day of the storm.  Our car was safely tucked inside the garage.


After our son and the kids left, this is what the driveway looked like.  Would you believe the big lump on the right is our other car!  We won't see it until Spring.


After all of the kids went home, our only contact with the outside world was an emergency radio.  The power, Internet, phone, and TV were out for six days.  The first day was fun, but then it gets a bit old.  Not knowing how long we were going to be without power, we only ran the generator for two hours in the morning and two hours at night.  We wanted to conserve the fuel we had.  The snowplow didn't come through the neighborhood very often, and the roads were too treacherous to venture out, even in 4-wheel drive.

In the evenings, Mr. Joe and I played gin rummy.  It was a good thing we weren't playing strip poker, because I would have been naked as a jay bird!

The only station we could get on the emergency radio was a Country/Western station. We were able to get caught up on the weather forecast and local/national news. We don't usually listen to Country/Western.

Here are some of our favorite lines from some of the songs we listened to.

"She was over me before the grass grew back."
"Bourbon don't burn the way you do."
"So tipsy we can't stop kissing."
"Leavin' town and chasin' sunsets down."
"Kissin' and the crickets is the only sound."

Here are our favorite bits of Country/Western Wisdom.

"We had it all when we didn't have much."  
"You can't buy happiness, but you can buy dirt."
"You're Mozart in the sheets."  (Now we are assuming this means sheet music!)  Silly us. 

This is what happens when you are locked up in solitary confinement for days on end with nothing but your spouse. dog, and a storm raging outside. 

Soon,
Lynn










16 comments:

  1. the snow looks so beautiful but it must get old when the power goes out - so good that you are prepared and have a wood fire to keep warm - nice that you had help to clear all that snow you surely needed help I bet - and yes best to wait to put those Christmas decorations away until it isn't a safety hazard

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    1. Yes, the snow is so beautiful. We feel as though we are in a snow globe. Having said that, many trees came down across power lines and landed on cabins. It's a mess around town.

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  2. Beautiful pictures! the white must get old after a while though? Stay safe and warm.

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    1. The beauty of the snow does not get old. The shoveling gets old, but it's good for the waistline!

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  3. It sure is pretty but all I can say is OMG! I lived in Buffalo, New York during the blizzard of 1977 so I know what it's like and never forgot it. After that blizzard I moved to Southern California. Wishing you a Happy and Healthy New Year.....

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    1. Thank you for commenting. Over the past week, it seemed as though we were in a blizzard. It's so cold, the snow isn't melting.

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  4. Believe it or not, it looks a lot like that here, Lynn! We've been thinking about you two! Yay for that emergency radio, bless the folks who gave it to you*! And now you'll have an entire new vocabulary for upcoming retreats!

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    1. Yes, bless you and Bob for our emergency radio! I hope you are enjoying your winter wonderland.

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  5. I just found your blog and I have to say "WOW", I live in Phoenix, AZ so I don't see snow but I would go to Flagstaff every year when my granddaughter was at college, snow there was enough to last me. I found you by goggling for Civil War Tribute, I am interested in that quilt because of Olivia from Pumpkin Hollow YouTube. Beautiful quilt that I would love to make after I finish Dear Jane. A very Happy New Year and may 2022 bring us joy and laughter and a kinder gentle world.

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    1. Thank you, Mary. My granddaughter is going to college in Tempe. She was with us for a couple of days during the height of the storm. What a change for her from Arizona weather.

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  6. WOW! I cannot recall the last time we saw that much snow in such a short period of time. I hope our snow pack above Redding is the same... and the run off is plentiful throughout the summer. Take care and stay put my friend, the decorations will wait.
    Hugs, Sharon McD

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    1. Happy New Year to you and your family, Sharon. The sun worked magic on the stairs, and I was able to navigate them.....I was careful!

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  7. Very entertaining post! Every picture has a "lump" in it, and the country-western lyrics are priceless! Don't even THINK about going down those steps!!

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    1. You are right about the lumps, Diane! Yes, the lyrics made us chuckle. Happy New Year!

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  8. Beautiful photos but I am glad I don't have to shovel the snow. Where is this location? I'm in Midland, TX and our temps have been on the opposite end. I think it was 80 degrees Christmas. Just now having some cold weather.

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  9. Love that Zavalgo sky! I would have a hard time tolerating that"music" myself.

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