Back to the Land of the Living

Happy Thankful Thursday!  We are extremely thankful to be back among the land of the living today, as we finally got our electricity back late this morning.  Sandy hit Southern New Hampshire on Monday and left behind quite a bit of damage. PSNH said this was the 4th highest outage in their history, behind only the ice storm of 2008, 2010 windstorm, and Halloween 2011 snow storm (exactly one year ago).  Yes folks, we've now been tricked and left in the dark for two Halloweens in a row. 

We are very thankful that, although we were without power for nearly 72 hours, we had no major damage to our home and we are all safe.  We have a portable generator that allows us to hook up the fridges and a few minor luxuries such as the TV, a light at night and the microwave when needed.  The worst part is when we loose power, we also loose the ability to have simple things like running water, flushing toilet and heat -- and no, as of right now we don't have the ability to hook these things up to the generator.  That really needs to change soon!

I apologize in advance, as if you follow me on Instagram, these photos will be repeats for you.  I have photos on the real cameras and as soon as we finish catching up with life, I'll get those downloaded to share.  I'll also take photos of the clean up process...

The winds started picking up early on Monday.  Lola tried fighting Sandy off with a loud bark, but it didn't work.  We lost power on Monday at 12:23 pm, much earlier than most in New England!

While I may have been able to get things set up, I opted to wait for Matt to get home from work Monday evening to start the generator.  That gave me a chance to use my favorite pumpkin candle...

Sometime on Monday, that beeatch Sandy took down both of our very old and very large weeping willow trees.  Nope, the beeatch couldn't have taken a dying apple tree or two, she had to break my heart and take some of my favorites.  Surprisingly, we never heard them fall... I'm suspecting it was at some point while we had the generator running (which we do shut off over night, although many of our neighbors leave theirs running all night long).  These were the first devastating shots I took from our back porch on Tuesday morning...

We are thankful they fell the way they did (basically "up" our yard), and did not fall "forward" (toward the camera in these shots), where they more than likely would have come in contact with our house.  We are also thankful that this is the majority of our yard damage.  We have several small branches all over the yard, a decent size limb broken off a large maple up behind these trees and the willows are resting atop one of those half dead apple trees, but that is all minor in comparison.  After I got over the shock, I realized the sky looked quite lovely and although Matt would highly disagree with me, I thought our driveway was pretty (he had spent most of Saturday mulching up leaves and had the front yard & driveway bare before the storm)...

 

So what to do while mourning the weeping willows and cursing at the cable company for the shaky service (hey, if my generator is going to run the darn TV, I expect to be able to watch the news and know what's going on out there in the real world)?  Eat, drink and be merry... or something like that, with a little knitting tossed in for good measure.  And while the cable was on and off over the past couple days, I'll admit it was on more than it was off.  I'm thankful for that, since it did allow me a little normalcy, as well as insights into world while stuck at home babysitting the generator and wishing for a shower.  (btw, the Limited Edition Pumpkin Swirl bread from Pepperidge Farm pictured below is delish!)  

Here's a closer look at one of the two craters left from the weeping willows...

Although my biggest wish was for a shower and running water during our 72 hours, I truly am thankful that we even have a generator, as I certainly realize that many folks do not.  And I am thankful that our damage was minor and our home is still standing (we did have a water leak under the living room window during the heaviest rain that we must look into and we have some chunks of roof scattered around the back porch that will need attending to).  The pictures on the news of the New Jersey shore towns who are under sand and water are devastating to see, as is the Queens neighborhood that was burned to the ground during the height of the storm.  While I complain about my issues here in New Hampshire, I can not even begin to image what these folks are going through today.  We're sending them all good vibes and crossed paws.

 

Of course, that didn't stop me from drowning my own sorrows in a glass of wine or two during the ordeal.  Tut seemed to be begging for a glass of his own...

 

I snapped this picture of the sunrise early this morning, well before our power was restored.  Call it a ray of hope if you will, but I thought it was a rather beautiful shot... and yes, was very hopeful for power restoration by the end of the day.  We hope everyone out there effected is staying safe and warm, as the cooler temps are certainly beginning to move in.