Ice, Ice Baby
We've been looking to adopt another Shiba, only because Bandit really misses Guin. One night we both stayed up with him until he fell asleep because he was howling, then whimpering. If I went into my office downstairs, he'd bark until I came back up. I tried bringing him down here, but he prefers being upstairs. So I talked to him and explained that I had to do my work and I would come up as much as I could.
I swear that dog was a human in another life. He settled down and hasn't barked since.
We thought we'd almost found a Shiba - a family about an hour away have to give their 8 year old female up due to foreclosure on their house and the new place won't let them have their dog. But turns out she doesn't get a long well with other dogs.
So we're still looking.
Then Thursday night, at about 130 in the morning (actually Friday morning), the electricity went out. I noticed because our humidifier in the bedroom stopped working. I listened. The wind howled. It was very, very dark.
At about 530 am I got up again, let Bandit out and saw ice all over the trees. I woke Chris up, because he has some clients he's doing snowplowing for and one is Napa Auto Parts and asked if he should check their parking lot to see if it needed sand/salt.
He debated, went outside and even though our driveway was clear, asked if I'd go for the ride with him. Since I was up already, I did. We made it down our road, then suddenly came upon some yellow caution tape. We almost ran into it. A power line was down, running across the street, and there were no barricades warning people. Without streetlights, someone could run into it. So Chris put his flashing yellow light on and directed people away while I called the police station to see if they could get something better out to warn drivers until it was at least light enough to see the damage.
We backtracked, found that Route One had electricity and got some coffee and donuts at a local deli, then headed to Napa. They ended up needing some sand/salt on the delivery entrance. Everything else was dry.
We drove down to the beach and noticed the Nubble lighthouse wasn't going. That was not a good sign. In all the years I've lived here, I have *never* seen the lighthouse dark. The end of our road was blocked off because the high tide flooded it. I completely forgot it was a full moon (cue in Twilight Zone theme music). With only that for light, and all the streetlights and houses dark, driving around was very eerie.
We took the long way home, with Chris checking all his clients driveways and it's a good thing we did. Turns out one of his condo places had a huge tree blocking the way in and some branches down. Another client had half a tree fall in his backyard and there were more. A friend stopped by and asked if Chris could come remove a tree down in his backyard. So Chris got his chainsaw sharpened and got to work.
Since we had now power, internet, cable or phone, we got a fire going in the fireplace in the living room and I kept it going while he worked. Thank goodness we have a gas stove - I was able to heat water for coffee and cook food, plus we had the BBQ grill, just in case.
By the afternoon, we got in our jammies and played Yahtzee on the floor in front of the fireplace. I was cooking enchiladas on a griddle on the stove (hey, adapt and overcome!). Chris went to take Bandit out, noticed our crazy neighbor had a light on and came in and suddenly there was electricity!
We snuggled in bed. Chris was exhausted from all the woodcutting and I watched a movie in bed. Still no internet/phone/cable.
The next morning we drove to Portsmouth to pick up some supplies and headed home. Joanne stopped by to tell us her power hadn't come on yet and she was going to stay at a friend's house with her cat. Soon after, we got our internet/cable/phone back on and it turned out her power came back on, so she ended up staying home.
We were very lucky - only a few small branches off the trees on our property and we have some big, old trees. Neighbors weren't so lucky. We saw trees on roofs, knocked down fences, power lines down - you name it.
Our friend Robin called today - they still don't have power or anything and borrowed a friend's generator so they could stay home. So many people still don't have power.
We decided it was time to invest in a generator. If they ever get back in stock - every place right now is completely out of them.
Now it's back to almost normal. My quest to find another Shiba is back on.
I swear that dog was a human in another life. He settled down and hasn't barked since.
We thought we'd almost found a Shiba - a family about an hour away have to give their 8 year old female up due to foreclosure on their house and the new place won't let them have their dog. But turns out she doesn't get a long well with other dogs.
So we're still looking.
Then Thursday night, at about 130 in the morning (actually Friday morning), the electricity went out. I noticed because our humidifier in the bedroom stopped working. I listened. The wind howled. It was very, very dark.
At about 530 am I got up again, let Bandit out and saw ice all over the trees. I woke Chris up, because he has some clients he's doing snowplowing for and one is Napa Auto Parts and asked if he should check their parking lot to see if it needed sand/salt.
He debated, went outside and even though our driveway was clear, asked if I'd go for the ride with him. Since I was up already, I did. We made it down our road, then suddenly came upon some yellow caution tape. We almost ran into it. A power line was down, running across the street, and there were no barricades warning people. Without streetlights, someone could run into it. So Chris put his flashing yellow light on and directed people away while I called the police station to see if they could get something better out to warn drivers until it was at least light enough to see the damage.
We backtracked, found that Route One had electricity and got some coffee and donuts at a local deli, then headed to Napa. They ended up needing some sand/salt on the delivery entrance. Everything else was dry.
We drove down to the beach and noticed the Nubble lighthouse wasn't going. That was not a good sign. In all the years I've lived here, I have *never* seen the lighthouse dark. The end of our road was blocked off because the high tide flooded it. I completely forgot it was a full moon (cue in Twilight Zone theme music). With only that for light, and all the streetlights and houses dark, driving around was very eerie.
We took the long way home, with Chris checking all his clients driveways and it's a good thing we did. Turns out one of his condo places had a huge tree blocking the way in and some branches down. Another client had half a tree fall in his backyard and there were more. A friend stopped by and asked if Chris could come remove a tree down in his backyard. So Chris got his chainsaw sharpened and got to work.
Since we had now power, internet, cable or phone, we got a fire going in the fireplace in the living room and I kept it going while he worked. Thank goodness we have a gas stove - I was able to heat water for coffee and cook food, plus we had the BBQ grill, just in case.
By the afternoon, we got in our jammies and played Yahtzee on the floor in front of the fireplace. I was cooking enchiladas on a griddle on the stove (hey, adapt and overcome!). Chris went to take Bandit out, noticed our crazy neighbor had a light on and came in and suddenly there was electricity!
We snuggled in bed. Chris was exhausted from all the woodcutting and I watched a movie in bed. Still no internet/phone/cable.
The next morning we drove to Portsmouth to pick up some supplies and headed home. Joanne stopped by to tell us her power hadn't come on yet and she was going to stay at a friend's house with her cat. Soon after, we got our internet/cable/phone back on and it turned out her power came back on, so she ended up staying home.
We were very lucky - only a few small branches off the trees on our property and we have some big, old trees. Neighbors weren't so lucky. We saw trees on roofs, knocked down fences, power lines down - you name it.
Our friend Robin called today - they still don't have power or anything and borrowed a friend's generator so they could stay home. So many people still don't have power.
We decided it was time to invest in a generator. If they ever get back in stock - every place right now is completely out of them.
Now it's back to almost normal. My quest to find another Shiba is back on.
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