Word of the Day

Chantress: A woman who practices chanting

Our generator works. OK. I knew that fact but I thought this was a clever way to let you all know that we lost power in last night's storm. The power threatened to leave us, on and off (sorry for the pun), from 11:30PM until midnight, at which point it finally stayed off. The generator kicked in but it doesn't actually run the entire house. Out here in Rural America, we don't have city water. We need electricity to run the pump so we can have water. My generator is taking care that I have water. It also runs the refrigerator, the office, and the living room. It doesn't run my coffeemaker.

The unfortunate thing about losing power is that it really highlights one's dependency on electricity. My Mom called. They don't have water. They don't have a generator. My sister called. She doesn't have water. She doesn't have a generator. OK. Enough "I told you so's". This is the lake. People have lived without electricity in the past and they still do.

Anyway, I've been busy running around forgetting that I still don't have electricity in certain parts of the house. The kitchen, other then the refrigerator, doesn't have electricity. I walked into the kitchen this morning and headed for the coffeemaker. No electricity. No coffee. Pout. No instant coffee. I don't like instant coffee but it'll do in a pinch and a panic. Note to self, buy instant coffee to keep in the cupboard for emergencies. OK. Think. I couldn't pour a cup of yesterday's coffee to nuke in the microwave but the microwave doesn't work. I grabbed a saucepan and poured the old coffee in that to heat on top of the stove. I have a gas stove so it'll still work. I turned on the gas under the burner. Nothing. Oh yah, my stove has an electric starter. Hey! I don't think too clearly without my first cup of coffee in the morning. OK. I grabbed the matches. The only thing the electricity does on my stove is shoot a spark out to light the burner. My match did the trick. Coffee. Ah, the pioneering spirit lives. I've since moved my coffeemaker to the office...after my sister asked me why I hadn't just done that. I hadn't thought about doing that.

Next. I went into the office to turn on the computer. This should have worked but HTP unplugged the entire system. Surge protectors are all well and good and if they fail, the makers promise to replace your equipment. Unfortunately, they don't promise to replace your data. We unplug our systems during bad storms. We don't want to lose our data. I plugged in the plugs that I saw but I must have missed one somewhere because I couldn't get my computer up and running. Back to the laptop. I'm running that on an extension cord right now. It does have a battery but since I have some electricity, there's no point in wasting the battery.

So, I got a call this morning from my Mom, asking me if we had power or if was just them. I assured her that it wasn't just them. I got a call from my sister next. She already knew that we didn't have power. She wanted to know if #1 son could come over to help remove a huge tree that had fallen over their driveway. Her hubby found it when he tried to head off to work. I went down and woke up #1 son.

#1 son isn't the easiest person in the world to wake up in the morning. You have to realize that it was only 6:30 AM at this point. He doesn't start surfacing until noon. It really is amazing how he can actually answer me politely and you can hardly see his lips move. Certainly, nothing else was moving either. "I'm moving!" Yes, I imagine that involuntary muscles on his body were moving. His heart was pumping. His lungs were functioning. I did hear a voice but other then that, no movement. Get up! Now! "I'm up already!" Hah! I went back upstairs. After another couple of minutes, I yelled down again. "I'm getting dressed!" By this time HTP was wondering what was up. I explained the situation and he said that he'd go over and help with the tree. He calmly rose, got dressed, and headed for the door. We have an electric garage door opener. Sigh. Thankfully there is a way to manually open the garage door if the power is gone. Note to self, as soon as the power comes back on, reactivate the garage door opener. HTP had already packed up the saws and ropes and backed out the car when #1 son finally stumbled up the stairs, boots in hand. The last I saw, they were heading over to help with the tree removal project. I never thought about the fact that we may have a tree over our own driveway. There may even be trees over the main road between our place and my sister's place.

My Mom called and asked if HTP and #1 son could stop by and pick up some jugs to fill with water for them...and a pumper pot for coffee. I tried to call them but I think #1 son wasn't really awake enough to slip his cell phone into his pocket. At this point, I haven't heard from either #1 son or HTP. I did assure my sister that they were on their way. The last I heard from her was that her husband got their chainsaw running. Oh good! All we have is an electric chainsaw and a manual pruning bow saw.

So, other then a tendency to flip switches and turn stuff on that won't work until the electricity is fixed, we'll weather the results of last night's weather just fine. HTP and #1 son just got back. The tree is gone. I just sent #1 son back to take water and coffee to my folks and/or just pick them up and bring them back here for the day...or until the electricity comes back on.

Update. I have power! It'll take a bit longer for the power to return to my folk's side of the lake. HTP and #1 son have plans to bring them over here until power returns.

Murphyism of the Day

Last Law of Robotics

The only real errors are human errors.