I have this strange urge to run around the house turning on every light and every single thing that is electric. I stood under the shower with hot water pouring out of the shower head for as long as I possibly could this morning. It felt so good to be truly clean again since it was Sunday at 5:00 a.m. when I had last felt that way. It was so nice to get up to a warm house with heat pouring out of the vents!

It really makes you appreciate the things we all take for granted. I’ve read a lot of books and seen many movies where people are struggling to live in a post apocalyptic world, and believe me, it felt that way to us this week. It makes you wonder what it would be like if something cataclismic did happen to our world and there was no longer any power, no gasoline to run our cars, no food being delivered to the grocery stores.

Yesterday when Rick got home from work he was very excited to see a utility crew working on our problem. We walked down to take a look. Lots of activity!

Several neighbors had gathered to watch. One neighbor who lives near where the trees fell across the road said that they saw the flash as power was lost. He also said he heard at the sound of tires spinning and took the flashlight out to see. The trees had crushed a car as they came down! The person in the car walked away unscathed. I think it must have been their lucky day!

We were optimistic even after we asked one of the crew if this meant our power would be back on shortly. He said non-committally “depends on where you live.” Both Rick and I pointed back up our road and he just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

One of our neighbors at the end of the road had just bought a brand new generator and it was chugging away. The opened box was still in his driveway. Rick had brought home a generator too on loan from someone at work. We knew this would guarantee that our power would come back on. It just had to!

When we got back to the house we checked the web site for Rockland Electric once again. It said we could expect to be back on the grid by 6:00 p.m. But 6:00 p.m. came and went with no change. We cooked by lamp light for what we hoped was the last time, then settled in by the wood stove for some good conversation.

You know how the story ends, so I’ll stop here!

What a year this has been for weather!

We are home and without power. One of our neighbors was nice enough to snow-blow a portion of our driveway so we could get in and I managed to get in touch with the cat sitter before she came to the house so I could ask her to leave the house key in the mailbox so we could get into the house. Usually we use the garage door, but of course with no power that option was out.

We cooked a meal of spaghetti on two butane burners that we keep for emergencies. Two of our lanterns worked and the other one needed batteries. We lit plenty of candles. We also had oil lamps but we had purchased the wrong kind of fuel for them so they didn’t shed much light, so to speak. We slept with an added duvet for warmth.

It’s so quiet. Almost like an end-of-the-world scenario in our neighborhood. Our neighbors across the street bailed out and went down to the their house on the shore.

Rick has no power at work so he is at home today. I guess we’ll read, maybe put a puzzle together.

The food in our freezer is now starting to thaw, so I guess we’ll BBQ chicken breasts tonight and eat up the frozen veggies.

We didn’t lose any trees but several large limbs are down and scattered around. So, with that we were lucky.

Not sure when our power will be restored so I might not be blogging since the only way we have of charging our cell phones and our iPads (without them we wouldn’t be blogging or have email) is to start up the truck and plug them in one at a time.

Oh the joys of camping within your own home!


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But not snow! Even though this looks like snow it is in fact white sand. These photos were taken at White Sands Monument between Las Cruces and Alamogordo. Miles and miles of white gypsum sand dunes that are constantly shifting. More on White Sands after we get home.



If we were in New Jersey today, which Bigsis is right, we are not, we would be in the midst of a rare October snowstorm. Sigh. I’m missing it! I am pretty sure our limo driver will have to let us out at the top of our driveway and we’ll have to slog through at least a foot of snow tomorrow! So far today at 5:00 eastern time we’ve had five inches according to neighbor Kim who so nicely went over and put figgy inside our garage.

I think I’ve finally eaten my fill of mexican fare so it’s time to go home. We’ve had a great time and I’ve been given the royal family treatment.

Tomorrow we get up bright and early to catch our flight to Houston. Fingers crossed our flight won’t be delayed because of backups at the Newark airport due to the storm. We’ll catch up on the flip side back in New Jersey with more photos from New Mexico!

And probably more photos of white stuff. Snow in October!

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I don’t know what got in to the trees but all of a sudden they are changing like crazy. In two days they’ve gone from looking blah to looking like autumn. I drove up to Warwick to return something and I couldn’t believe the amount of color just since Sunday when we were last there. So pretty! I needed a camera in my forehead to snap photos as I drove by.

It’s been drizzling all morning, and after I came home I decided the dogs needed a walk since they were bouncing off the walls. A little rain wouldn’t hurt us! I’ve been taking all three together instead of just Alex and Hailey and then coming back and doing it all over again with Bella. Bella pulls so hard! But somehow when I have all three Bella is much better. It works, much to my surprise.

Some of the leaves in the road caught my attention, so after putting the dogs in the house I grabbed the camera and headed back out. The black “canvas” of the street sets off their colors.

I thought this one looked like a red chili pepper!

And this one like the feather of a tropical bird.

Raindrops caught plunking into puddles.

I’m still not sure about this autumn and its show of colors. We are supposed to get heavy rains tonight so that will certainly not help. Then, this weekend we are expecting very windy weather. I don’t think the poor trees have much of a chance of attending the autumn masquerade ball in full regalia.

Don’t cry little burning bush, there’s always next year!

Not sure as in not sure what I am going to say or what this blog post is really going to be about. I have no new pics to share. Not much happening with fall color this year. I think the trees are water logged. Our color, which is usually spectacular, I don’t think is going to happen. Many trees have already dropped their leaves, never mind the whole changing bit. It’s like they’ve given up. Too much rain. When I mentioned it to Rick he said exactly what I had not thought about before. It’s like when you over-water your plants in the house: what happens? The leaves drop and fall off. Kind of the scenario we have going on here. Very sad. I look out the window to leaves drifting down ever so slowly all day long that have not even changed yet. It’s truly unfortunate as we usually have the most beautiful autumns/falls. I have my doubts about this year.

As I type Rick is on his way to LA, CA. I probably haven’t mentioned it because basically I not supposed to be broadcasting this, but given my blog is now private it doesn’t really matter. Remember last year when the company Rick works for was awarded Ms. Emmy? Well, this year Rick’s goal was to get them nominated for an Oscar, which he somehow managed to accomplish. So now, tonight, he is on his way to a do a presentation as to exactly why their cameras deserve an Oscar. We are truly bummed that Ms. Emmy (the statue) won’t be meeting up Mr. Oscar (the statue) to have any kind of meaningful relationship together. It seems that they only award the Oscar statute to those so-underserving-Hollywoood-stars/starlets and not to the technology field that runs the show. Only a “plaque” or a “certificate” is the best they can hope for. Still, an awesome accomplishment. I am so proud of my hubby for pushing through to even get the nomination! Go Rick!

Neighbor Aileen and I went to the yarn store today (an hour’s drive away) to get yarn for different projects. I cannot reveal mine because of certain people who may be a recipient of my knitting efforts. Suffice it to say we were both successful. Before heading out I went over to visit Aileen’s newest member of her barnyard. (In case you don’t remember I get fresh eggs from her chickens.) Meet Ollie, the miniature pig!

I swear, he is the cutest darn thing I think I have even seen. Personality with an A+. When we went down to see him he was in his little dog house (or is that piggy house?) and he was so wrapped around the blanket he had in his little house that he was all tangled up and couldn’t get out. He was making little piggy noises and as Aileen tried unwrapping him from his blanket prison he squealed and squeaked. Poor little guy! When she tried to pick him up, well, he squealed like a pig, what else? I was totally enamored of Ollie at this point.  Such a cutie!

I am also not sure of the weather. It’s been in the 80’s for two days now. Pretty strange. Supposedly (and hopefully) dipping back down into normal range temps for the rest of this week. Too hot folks! The only difference between these temps in the summer and this time of year is that is cools down significantly in the evening so our air conditioning remains where it should be this time of year: OFF. Enough of those kinds of temps. Really.

However, we still have cicadas going at night. What is up with that? I don’t think we’ve ever heard them this late in the year. Maybe all the rain stopped them from finding mates. Who knows? It’s been strange for sure.

Also not sure (yet) but I may be doing some volunteer work that combines horses (which I used to love being around) and children with disabilities. More on that after I explore the situation more. It could be really good for me.

I have more things tonight that I am not sure about, but those will have to wait for a different post.

Right now the only thing I am sure about is that I have not slept well for the past several nights. So, on to a decent night’s sleep!