Story of the Day 1/ 13/ 2014

Today, my daughter told me that I look good.
Compared to a meth addict.

We were talking about how her oldest brother, Ely, came home, one day, from high school totally freaked out.
He said something to the effect of " I will NEVER do drugs. Those meth addicts were so scary looking!"
Apparently, his class had been shown a series of before and after pictures.

Sarah said, "Oh, I have seen those , too. The first picture of them, they look about 25, and in the one from 3 years later, they look between 50 and 60. Really old."

I replied to her, "Which is how old I am , right between 50 and 60."

Sarah eyes me and says, "You look better than they do."

Thanks.

Story of the Day - 1/ 7/ 2014 and 1/ 8/ 2014 ( I am trying to catch up with posting)

1/ 7/ 2014


We have been amused by the photos people have posted of Snowmaggeddon. Of course, we can be amused by them because we are sitting in Harriet's house, enjoying her internet, electricity, furnace, etc. Oh, and her nice warm blankets.
We do feel for those people trapped in shelters, many of which have sprung up in the city.
There are people sleeping in hotel lobbies, because the hotels that have power are full.
And then there are those people still stuck in their freezing, dark homes, like my husband and son who are insisting that hey are doing fine, since it is still 34 degrees in our house. And that was this morning,when they awoke, it is even colder, now.
I have another cup of hot tea- harriet has a nice variety of teas, and wonder at their....stubbornness.

Sarah and I are taking bets on how long they last.


1/8/ 2014


We are home.
The power is back, the lights work and the furnace is struggling to move the thermometer inside the house past 50 degrees, but , at this point, it feels rather luxurious.
Except to Sarah who is still ill.
An examination of her throat has prompted a call to the doctor. It looks like strep.
Thank God we did not go to a different neighbor, like the one who is on chemo, when the power was out.
Our street has still not been shoveled. There are vehicles stuck all over town, and I am contemplating taking her to see the doctor.......

Addendum to the Story of 1/ 06/ 2014

It is a month after we lost power and went to stay with Harriet.

The forecast today s for a high of 12 degrees, and a low of -6.
That is without the wind-chill.
I , however, am sitting in my well heated house.

I used to complain that it was a mite chilly with the thermostat set to 65 in the winter, but it is amazing how warm that now feels.

I am about to go out to work, leaving my warm home behind for the less warm classroom. (there have been heating problems there for years.)

And I am still incredibly grateful because
I have watched the news for the past week. Watched the people of Philadelphia and neighboring areas struggle with the aftermath of a storm that saw over 200,000 without power...and some are still waiting, today , to have it back on.

I am hoping they have Harriets in their lives.

Story of the Day 1/ 06/ 2014

It got colder.
It was very cold by the time we managed to crawl out from under our imitation down blankets, this morning.
And , it got colder as the day progressed.
I called the electric company.
They are expecting power to be restored by Thursday.
Thursday.
Today is Monday.
And the temperature is headed into the negative numbers. Fahrenheit.
With windchill, we are being told to expect it to be -45 degrees. Without windchill, -16.

I am trying to think of whom we can stay with.....the number of people is small.
We have several friendly neighbors across the street. Their power is not out, Power to our side and the street behind us is out.
I run over the list of possibilities.
There is the couple at the end of the block, senior citizens.
There is the friend right across from us, who is on chemo.
There is the neighbor at the other end, who has 5 other relatives, including a baby staying with her.
None of these are good options, because Sarah is now running a temperature.
She is also threatening to throw up off and on, as the day progresses.

I call Harriet.
Harriet lives a long block away. Very long , if you cannot take the short cut.
Without the shortcut it is something like a three block hike over snow that is deep and has not been plowed, but she has 4 bedrooms, 3 of which are empty.
She also has power. Electric, heat, hot water.
She says, "Come on over!" And even sounds happy about it, and this AFTER I have explained that Sarah is ill.

We wait until evening, we are still stubbornly hoping our own power will come on.
Our driveway is , as I said in yesterday's story, well shoveled, but the street has still not been plowed.
My husband and son pack Sarah and me up in the car and drive us to Harriet's.
The two of them have decided that they will tough it out in our cold house. They have two reasons for this. First, they want to go to synagogue , in the morning, and our house is a lot closer to the synagogue, and second, they like their own beds.
Oh, there is also that third reason, the one my sister Kim refers to as the defective Y chromosome. There are moments when you realize it does not have a leg to stand on - or , at least, it only has one so it tends to have wobbly logic ( unlike the X, which has two.)
The guys seem to think they will be fine in our house where I keep expecting ice to start forming on the inside of the windows.

When we get to Harriet's street we see a large work van stuck across both lanes.There is no way to get past it, not in the car.
We get out and hike the rest of the way.
Then the guys go home.

Harriet feeds us and offers us that most delectable luxury of a shower in a bathroom that has heat, and Sarah and I go off to sleep in a bed piled high with comforters, because even though Harriet's house has power, it is still struggling against the extreme cold.

In the morning, my husband and son wake up to find that the house, with the fireplace going, and the bathtubs filled with hot water, and pots of hot water set around trying to bop up the indoor temperature just a bit, is a nice and toasty 34 degrees.

We expect them to join us, at Harriet's, tonight.

Story of the Day 1/ 05/ 2014

I should have known better.
I wrote a story and complained about how cold our house was, when our furnace broke.
And then, really tempting fate, I thanked G-d (and also our furnace repair guy), because, on Friday, with the nasty winter storm blowing in, our house was warm just in time for the arctic blast.

Yes, I should never have tempted fate that way.
Because while our furnace had been repaired in time for what has now been called a Polar Vortex and the ensuing Snow-maggedon, our electric company's lines and substations and the like were not at all up to (pardon the pun) weathering the storm.

On Sunday, with our driveway, but not our street, well shoveled, it happened.
The lights went out,and then ...it was quiet.
No hum from the refrigerator, no background noise of the fan forcing the warm air through our home.

The lights had gone off and on a few time since Friday, but this time, they didn't come back on again.

It wasn't fair.
We had paid our taxes and shoveled our walk and driveway.
We were almost the only ones to do it, too.
Many years of living in snowier places than Indiana had taught me to start shoveling when the snow was an inch or two thick, and repeating this exercise at that interval until the snow stopped.
All day long I went out and shovelled.
And, when my son , Aaron was home, he helped me with it.

Sarah didn't join in. She was in bed with a low grade temperature, a headache and a queasy stomach.
We missed the man-power, but understood.
My husband, once he was home, also lent a hand.
As the day got later, and the snow kept falling, it got harder and harder to keep up. And it wasn't because we were fatigued, it was because the snow was falling faster and faster
We didn't give up, though, we kept at it.
We had started shoveling, and had kept our driveway and walkway shoveled, and now, our lights were off.
We shoveled one last time, in the dark- really dark, no street lights, no driveway or walkway light, before going to bed; and , silently ( okay, not that silently) prayed that the wind wouldn't blow it all back onto the cleared driveway while we slept.

I fumbled in the kitchen for the matches, then lit a few candles. I sent my son off with one, and took a couple and set one on a bathroom counter, because bathrooms are important, even in blackouts. I took one to my daughter's room- cautioning her, as she lay in bed, about not letting anything with fabric get close to it.

Then I started searching for the flashlights I had bought- and I doled them, and some extra batteries , out to everyone.

At this point, were all hoping that the power will be out for just a little while, but that little while keeps getting longer and longer.

We open the grate and start a fire in the fireplace.
The fireplace is gas, and pretty, but most of the heat goes straight up the chimney. It is, however, better than nothing.
I fill a pot with water and set it to boil. This requires a bit of caution since the ceramic logs are uneven. That may be aesthetically pleasing, but, I am realizing, it is not practical. Once the water is hot, I take it and put it on the stove top- which is electric and useless, except, now, to hold a pot that can radiate some heat into the room. I put another pot on to boil and I keep doing this.

I get out the radio that my family always teases me about, not the emergency weather radio- I gave that away a couple of months ago to a friend who was worried about her parents, since they didn't have one.
No, I have another one- one that my family has teased me about for years. It sits on a window sill, its battery charging in the sunlight, waiting for when there is no power.
This evening, I take it off the window sill and try to find the weather report.
Station after station tells me about the football game or the upcoming football game, or the most recent football game.
Other stations keep telling me how Jesus did this and that and the other thing, but what I want to hear is what the weather is going to be doing.
The last time I had checked, we were in for a deep freeze, and I want a time frame- an up to date what to expect when.
It is a case of Heaven can wait- just give me the Dad-blasted weather report!

Before the internet, well, not before it, but before everyone used it on a daily basis to check things like the weather report, there used to be a phone number you could call and get the weather report.
In Indianapolis it was 635-5959.
I haven't called it in years, but one of the quaint things about my memory is that the only thing it does well is remember phone numbers.
Forever.

A few of my friends, knowing this, have used me , for years, as their reverse number look up.
" My caller ID says 455-6709, who is that?"
It is not much of a skill, but I suppose it is better than nothing, although, remembering the weather number is not better than nothing, because it was disconnected a few years ago.

In the end, we go to bed in a house that is growing colder, by the hour.
Even though the furnace has been repaired.