A Christmas Story

Christmas morning at our house when I was growing up went like this:

We could not wake Mom and Dad up too early, so my oldest brother went down to the living room to get the stockings. He would come back with reports of what he saw. We opened the stockings and ate the nuts and fruit, complained about the coal in the toe of the stocking and opened the small gifts.

At about 7 or 8 ( I can’t remember what the appropriate time was), Mom and Dad got up and we were allowed to go downstairs. We opened gifts and then ate a big breakfast.

This particular Christmas morning, we opened gifts as usual and when Mom opened her gift from Dad it was a box of Fanny Farmer Chocolates (do any of you remember Fanny Farmer?). When she announced it was time to eat breakfast, we all protested. We told he we wanted chocolates. She said no, but we insisted (just one chocolate then we’ll eat breakfast, we promise), so finally she took off the Fanny Farmer Chocolate wrapper and opened the box. In the center of the chocolates, a few chocolates had been removed and a small box was in their place. My Dad had bought her a new ring and brought it to the candy store to have it placed in the box of chocolates, then the clerk wrapped the box as usual.

My Mom still has that ring.

And Christmas was bright

I just found  these stats.They document the hard work these men and women did to restore power to everyone by Christmas morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Storm Stats – incredible numbers from an incredible storm

• Wire    Restrung more than 120 miles of power cable (the distance between Nashua and Littleton on I-93)
• Phone Calls    Answered more than 435,000 customer calls in 11 days (equivalent to 4 months of calls, normally)
• Poles    Reset more than 250 broken poles
• Fuses    Installed more than 16,000 fuses
• Transformers    Replaced about 1,500 transformers (almost a year’s supply)
• Crews    Deployed more than 1,200 crews, including workers from Maryland, the Midwest and Canada

THANK YOU.

Is Mother Nature mad?

All over the country there has been extreme and often unusual weather. Snow in Central Texas and Vegas?!? Here in the Northeast we had a record breaking ice storm the night of December 11th. By Friday morning the 12th, over 4000 homes were without electricity, mostly in the southern tear of the state. Our power went out at about 10 pm on the 11th, we got it back on the evening of the 15th.  Friday morning it took David and I several tries to find a road out of town that was not blocked by trees or downed wires so we could get to work. My usual 50 minute commute was 1 1/2 hours. This storm was followed by three snow storms (17th, 19th and 21st) for a total of about 2 feet.

Some homes in our area are still without power, they will have a dark Christmas. At one time there were 750 power and tree crews from far and wide to help restore power. Roads were impassable for days, schools have been closed and will not open until after the winter break. Some homes sustained damage from falling trees, cars were totaled and, unfortunately, people died. A 75 year old man refused to leave his home, fell and died of hypothermia on the floor. Some have died of carbon monoxide poisoning from generators and other portable heaters not properly set up or ventilated. Food poisoning was a common complaint of ER visitors (food spoils in a refrigerator in 4 hours). People stayed in shelters or with family but unfortunately some empty homes were broken into: copper pipe stolen from one and Christmas presents opened and some gifts taken.

Not all that has happened this past 2 weeks is bad. Neighbors helped neighbors (even ones they did not previously know). My father refused to leave his home (Mom came to stay with us – we have a wood stove and generator). Dad is 81, an old Yankee, who wanted to protect his home and did not want to move his two Siamese kittens. On day 3 of the power outage, a neighbor from up the street came knocking on the door, offered hot tea and the intermittent use of his generator. This man brought the generator over every afternoon for three days for several hours to warm the house, allow Dad to cook and shower. Their power was restored the evening of the 16th.

In one of the small towns not far from here, there is still no power in many homes. A very prominent business man (contractor) sent his biggest truck south to find as many generators as he could (no generators within a 50 (100?) mile radius). He parked the truck in his parking lot and offered the generators at his cost to anyone who wanted one. He did not sell them to make a profit, and I bet some families got one for nothing.

Shelters have been open in fire stations, town halls, schools and such. They are manned by volunteers who often did not have power in their own homes. Fire and emergency personnel have come from other parts of the state not as badly affected to help out so that our volunteer firemen and EMTs could go home.

The local hospital was on generator power from the 11th to the 18th (do you know how much gas that is?). The Wellness center was open 24 hours a day so hospital employees and their families could shower. The kitchen fed everyone who came in over the weekend for free.

The local store in my town found a generator to run the gas pumps. They lost a lot of perishables in the store, but the two women who run the store were out there filling gas cans and gas tanks well into the night.

I feel fortunate to have been able to stay warm and safe. We could not shower at home or do laundry, but my house did not sustain any damage. My family all weathered the storm pretty well. I feel bad for local businesses, they lost 7 days of Christmas sales and those that are already struggling will probably not survive.  

Here are some pictures:

Trees missed my garden shed.

Ice is at once both beautiful and destructive.

Here are a couple of images for comparison. The first was taken December 13th the second December 21st.

I am sure there are more stories like this around the country, wild weather is being reported everywhere. I hope everyone is safe and able to celebrate the holiday of choice with family and friends.

“May all beings everywhere with whom we are inseparably interconnected,

be fulfilled, awakened, liberated and free.

May there be peace in this world and throughout the entire universe,

and may we all together complete this spiritual journey.

                                                             Mahayana Prayer

Peace and be well.

Cynthia

Time Passes, Paca Poop and Knitting

I know I say this a lot: Where does the time go? October and November were very busy (see previous post) but are now in the past. Thanksgiving in Texas was great. We spent two weeks helping David’s brother and sister in law set up their alpaca ranch (what is the difference between a ranch and a farm?). I loved being on the ranch everyday, working with the animals, scooping poop, cleaning garden beds (I could have done without the copper head!) and pastures. The ranch is Peeka Ranch in Burton,Texas and now has 14 alpaca. It is a very ambitious start but they are doing very well.

I have done a lot of knitting. Small projects but it is so satisfying to have finished objects in hours or days. Here are a few items:

This is the Baby Sqash Hat by Tamara Del Sonno. (Yup that is a gourd it is on)

 

This one is the Garter Stitch Loop-through scarf by Marci Richardson. (both done in same yarn – a 100% alpaca, hand dyed).

 

This one is Blanket Buddy by Mary Anne Thompson (I actually made 2 of these), this is The Alpaca Yarn Company’s Snuggle. All of these patterns are in 101 Designer One Skein Wonders.

Other knitting I have done: I started a Swallow Tail Shawl (I’ll post pictures and tell the tale next time) and I am making a pair of fingerless gloves (gauntlets really) for a woman who will give them to her husband for Christmas (he has MS and his hands and arms are always cold in the house). My own design and very easy. I promise to post pictures of these also.

My on-line store (www.Nightingalefibers.com) is beginning to see more traffic. I advertised on Ravelry in October and November and will probably do so again in January. I would like to do more fiber festivals next year, some are very hard to get into, they have limited space and the vendors who have been doing the festivals are locked in. I will get my name on the lists and see what happens.

David has healed well since his surgery to repair his Achilles tendon. He wore his air cast until last week and is getting around fine. He sees his surgeon in a few weeks and will probably not tell him what he has been doing the past few weeks (working on the ranch). But I think he was very careful and except me dropping a heavy barn mat on his feet he did not do anything to jeopardize his recovery.

Here are a couple of pictures of Peeka Ranch to end with:

 

 

 

 

“Not to do any evil, To cultivate good, To purify one’s mind – - This is the advise of the Buddhas” Dhamma pada

Cynthia