I'm Ba-a-ck!

(Apologies to Jack Nicholson in "The Shining.")

The better part of a week without power sure makes a person appreciate modern conveniences like water, flush toilets, and light in the darkness.  And computers!  PG&E kept teasing...their automated calls would say, "Power will be restored on such-and-such a day at --o'clock," but it wasn't, and then another call saying a distant day and time...again and again.  Aaargh!

We got six to eight inches of snow, gosh, was it last Monday?  The power went out last Monday, that I know.  Time flies and drags.  I know I've read four books since the lights went out, reading by flashlight and headlamp in the early morning and after dark at night.  I've had to use a sled to get alfalfa to the goats and did a slip-and-slide to tend to the chickens.  Oh boy, at the risk of borrowing a phrase from "Streetcar Named Desire," I've had "the kindness of strangers."  Camille, who was brave enough to go into town, picked up my meds for me, and Beau came by one day to take my trash down to the big road.  Not only that, but another day he and his four kids came unannounced and completely restocked the porch rack with firewood.  Tinka and my go-to guy, as well as my friend Harold and my brother-in-law, called just to say hi (and make sure I was surviving).  I need to return a call from a dear cousin this morning.  Once all was right in my world, I fell asleep in the chair early last night and slept well (with the light on).

I was able to take a few photos before my cellphone went dead (talk about being cut off from the world!).  This was the after the first, but not the last, snowfall.

This dear little bird flew into the big window in the living room and knocked itself silly.  I looked, but didn't see it from inside, so went out and I'm glad I did.  It was almost buried in the snow and would have frozen to death.  It took more than five minutes of huffing warm breath over it before it revived enough to fly off.

It's light enough to see outside now, and what I see isn't reassuring.  We're due for more snow and it's coming.  Oh goody.

Thanks for all the well wishes and for hanging in there with me.