I’m sitting in my office on Monday morning, the 9th of January, enjoying the electrical power. We have had power through most of the storms but it’s been more off than on for the past 48 hours. It is nothing compared to my friends farther out on Greenwood Ridge, who have been out of power for days.
I can remember being without power a lot as a kid. The Elk side of Greenwood Ridge always gets its power on last, it seems, now, and then. The worst was after the big wind storm we had in the late 1970’s, when we were without power for two weeks. At that time almost everything in the house was electric except for the wood stoves - a small, pot bellied stove in the kitchen and a large wood stove in the living room. We used that as our cook-top when the power was out, heating up soups and stuff slowly as the day wore on. We also had oil lanterns and candles and flash lights. We had a water tank above the house so we could flush toilets when necessary. I do remember as that two week outage dragged on we emptied our freezers and took everything to my aunt and uncle’s down the road who had power so we didn’t lose everything.
Like many folks, we do have a generator, so we can plug in the wood stove in our house and get the blower running so we have heat. I had friends who spent Christmas week in Buffalo without any heat - I don’t think they do wood heat back there as much and I guess people don’t have generators either? We can plug in a few lamps and appliances as necessary, so it’s not terrible. The worst is losing hot water and having to heat water on the stove for washing. We haven’t gone as far as a whole house generator, but I can certainly understand the appeal of one.
We had a good Christmas with our visiting family and rang in the New Year with friends. Overall, the holidays were quite enjoyable this year - my plan to get into the spirit worked. Now the rest of the year looms and January often feels like a let down after all of the festivities of December. To combat this, I’ve signed myself up for a 30/30 challenge with the cycling club in Vancouver a friend hooked me up with. TaG Cycling is a coaching platform as well as a physical training center. They do online and in-person classes and you can also sign up for group rides and personal training. I just use them in the winter months for indoor virtual rides and I think they do a good job. Their 30/30 challenge is to ride every day for 30 days, January 2 through 31, for at least 30 minutes. Every day there is a Zoom ride scheduled and you can join in it at the scheduled time or use a link for the recording for the following 24 hours or you can ride outside or on your own. It gets me moving in the morning, provides exercise and gives me something to look forward to.
I hope you are staying dry, have power or a good work-around, and are also enjoying the New Year.
Photos at: mendocountry.com/annes-blog/2023/1/9/welcome-2023-storms-and-all
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