Oh the Drama...

As the week went on...and on...and on...without power, people were slowly starting to lose patience. As we listened to talk radio, more and more people were complaining about the length of time the restoration process was taking. Some areas, including our own, hadn't even seen any trucks come to check out the damage. There were workers from other states who had come to help out, but at first many of them weren't given instructions as to where to go or what to do, so they had to just sit and wait. Of course I wasn't able to hear much news from our local stations about what was going on, but I did get updates through Facebook on my phone from one local station to have some idea. Shelters were filling up with people, people with young children or older adults in the home were trying to find places to go to get out of their cold homes. People were not happy. For our family, it was just another day to be together and find some more adventure at Evergreen Walk. We still had cereal, and no...not with the milk from all week! I bought some milk when I went to Whole Foods again. I filled a pan with snow and placed the milk in the pan! It was time to get a little creative about this no power thing. I also filled the ice container in the freezer with snow, to keep our little pints of ice cream cold.
We went to the Hallmark store in Evergreen to get some more candles for the house. I needed to make sure they were good ones, that smelled good, but would also last for a long time since we had them burning for so many hours. The wonderful sales lady introduced me to WoodWick Candles, the wicks are made of wood (hence the name WoodWick!), and the candle makes crackling sounds. They had great fragrances and I love things that are different! I also love the sounds of a crackling fire, so I had to get that candle. We enjoyed some more fun at Evergreen. It was great to see Bella socialize for a little bit with other dogs. She also did well in the stores we visited. Some proud moments for this dog owner! Those of you that know Bella, or have ever been to our house, will understand why. After a fun day of meet and greet, and a little shopping, we got some dinner and headed back home. Nothing had changed, well, maybe except for the fact that more neighbors were out of their houses enjoying the sun and one another's company. It was neat to see people checking on and helping one another. As, I was talking to a neighbor...it happened...for the very first time since the storm on Saturday, we saw CL&P on our street! Now to be fair, I have to admit that they were probably there before at some point, because Thursday morning I think it was, when I took Bella out, a cone had mysteriously been placed in front of the hanging wire at the end of the street. That had been the first sign to show that we hadn't been forgotten in our little dead end neighborhood. But... this was the first time I had seen them with my own eyes. They were in a minivan, checking the "prayer tree" and the different wires along the street that were down. There was hope! They left not long after, and soon after that, we were in for the night, under the blankets, in front of the candles. I was so excited to light my new WoodWick candle. It smelled wonderful and made those wonderful crackling sounds as promised, though we had a little trouble hearing them over the radio. When mom was getting ready for bed, I took Bella out one more time before bed, then put both of them snuggly in to bed. Not long after that, around 10, we started hearing loud noises. It wasn't generator sounds that we had been hearing plenty of lately, it wasn't sirens from police cars and fire trucks that we also heard plenty of that week. It was a different sound than any we had heard lately. I sprang out of bed, and flew like a flash to the window, and what to my wondering eyes should appear? Well, it had nothing to do with reindeer. There was a man in a bucket way up in the sky, but as I watched him, he didn't really seem to fly. As I looked closer what I could see, were men finally cutting down the "prayer tree". Oh joy! (end of my crazy poem, sorry, just couldn't resist) I would no longer have to feel as if I were playing Russian Roulette every time I left our street! It's OK, cut away guys! I did get in bed later to rest up for another trip to my friend Sharan's house, this time we would actually have them as company. I wanted my mom to meet the kind people that offered their home and shower to us. I also really wanted her to meet their amazingly big, beautiful dog Hudson! So more adventures were yet to come!
Lord, thank you for another awesome day with mom and Bella. Thank you for allowing us to see some help coming our way. Thank you for these men and women who worked so hard, even into the late night to help take care of problems on so many different streets throughout the state. Thank you for those that came from other states to help, and bless them for their hard work. Thank you for this precious time to spend with mom and Bella, I'm really kind of enjoying it, Lord. Thank you for that!