Thankful

It's been a difficult week what with the snow and the ice and the unusually low temperatures and the continuous presence of all three.  The roads have been completely drivable, which is a good thing, although I haven't had any particular need to drive upon them much other than to go to the post office and buy the occasional quart of milk.  But the coldness has been way too much for our heating capacities: the propane stove just can't keep up with it, and a couple of electric heaters help, but even then it's a struggle to keep the house at 65 degrees.  And in the morning, with just the propane on, we awakened to a brisk 51 degrees on Wednesday morning.  This morning, it was 0 under the house.  Of course, I wasn't under the house, so who cares?  But there is some kind of heat exchange that goes on there that makes it matter to me.  My feet have been cold for days, even though I am wearing 2 pairs of socks and a pair of down slippers.

But today it is better, and we are giving Thanks for that.  But today, also, the power has been off for five or so hours.  The first time, this morning, it was for about 3 hours, and then this evening, for another almost 2 hours.  The first time, it began around 10 a.m., so you could see, even though there was no power for the lights.  But the second time, it was around 5 p.m., and it was dark outside, and I was in an outbuilding without windows, and suddenly I was in the dark.  The really dark.  Over near the door, there is a table with a flashlight, if only I can manage to get to the door without falling over something.  It took me awhile, very cautiously moving in the direction of the door.  I missed it by about 3 feet, but eventually found the flashlight and closed things up and betook myself back home where Ed had turned on a propane lamp that I could see from where I was.

And after a couple more hours of general darkness, it was time to cook the Thanksgiving dinner.  Not a turkey, obviously.  But I thought about all those people who were trying to do a big dinner while the power went off and on and off and on.  Not the most festive of events, I'd think.  We could have cooked it outdoors on the barbeque, I guess, although it was yet a little cold to be roasting outdoors.

Well, thankful for the power that is back with us.  Long may it stay.