Season's First Power Outage

We had the season’s first power outage yesterday morning when, somewhere in Greater Sky Londa, a tree fell and took out a PGE pole. Trees normally fall when the first winter storm hits, not when it is 90o and calm. This is supposed to be a wet winter, which implies storms, which implies more power outages.  

Three years ago our first Sky Londa power outage was fun. It was late afternoon on a stormy and cold Saturday. We quickly determined that power outage was widespread by the sound of numerous generators firing up. We inherited a generator with the house, but never tried it. It didn’t fire up. So I started a fire in the wood burning stove while Cyndi found the short wave radio and a couple hurricane lanterns. We had fun sitting by the fire, listening to music and playing chess or cards or something. We felt it was very romantic and old-timey ... until the power returned and we WhooHoo’ed immediately back to the television. Subsequent power outages haven't been as much fun.  

Fall leaves on Party Deck

We recently got the generator working and I started it up to keep the fridge running and the ice cream frozen while we completed staining the fourth of seven wood decks. Yes, we stained decks in the heat but we were at least in the shady side of the house. We started with the hot tub deck and used a stain called Navajo Red. We now call this the Party Deck. Learning from our experience, we turned to a more subdued Redwood stain for the remaining decks. 

After finishing staining and taking a much needed and enjoyed shower, we lunched on the yet-to-be-restained upper deck, then read books for the afternoon. Laying in the hammock, I watched jets on their leisurely landing approach through a cloud of thousands of moths.  

As the sun began to set, a PGE truck stopped under some form of power switch atop a pole that sits well below our house. We impatiently watched Mr PGE ascend to the switch, expecting him to return power and television to us. But he only fiddled, descended and returned to his truck, waiting for instructions.


I grabbed a drink and a radio and listened to Latin hip hop music from the deck while carefully watching Mr PGE for any movement. It got darker, I got another drink and the radio station switched to cantina music. Thousands of stars replaced the moths while I continued to watching landing jets, circumpolar satellites and Mr PGE.  He has great patience. I had another drink.

Finally at 9:30, Mr PGE again ascended, fiddled and WhooHoo! power returned. Cyndi turned to MSNBC while I turned off the generator and staggered to bed.