It is almost noon and I see blue sky, patches of blue sky! It is so beautiful. About 50,000 homes still without power, peak number was 150,000. No work today…no where to park, no internet. Downed trees still being cleared. We should be operational by tomorrow. I hope you are safe and warm wherever you may be.

Power came back on this afternoon. It took about 4 hours for the heat and hot water to happen. It has been a unique experience. Being alone, in the dark for 14 hours for 3 nights. One night the cloud cover was thin enough that the full moon shown through. That was magical. Listening to the branches cracking, breaking, falling; the occasional Canada goose honking as it flew by. At times it was so quiet: no one moving, no wind, no traffic.

Thursday night lots of people were out walking and taking pictures. The novelty hadn’t worn off yet. The mechanical sounds of the plows and bobcats moving snow around was comforting. (The front loaders and dump trucks didn’t start removing snow until today.)

But inside on the couch I piled on layers and animals. When the temperature outside reached 38 degrees F on Saturday, my southwest windows helped to warm up the place. Passive solar heating.

I knew I was lucky to be dry, out of the weather, had enough food and water for all of us. I also did some personal reflection – sometimes hard to find time to let everything go and look at your life. But in the dark in the quiet. My boys asleep. My little tealight bringing a warm glow to my living room. I thought about how that lately I’ve gotten caught up in a circular nightmare of being tired of myself and feeling tired for being tired of myself.

But this experience snapped me out of my cycle. Nothing like 64 hours of having no control over just about everything in your life makes you realize that you do have control over just about everything in your life. With that I leave you with a poem:

won’t you celebrate with me