i now it has been awhile since i wrote anything but we in NJ have had a few challenges in the last 2-3 months.
lest see back in sept. we had and earthquake and a hurricane in the same week! ( and i must add sort of tongue in cheek it proves we nj folks are tough , strong or resilient choose any of these). during the earth quake i was at an allergist office awaiting some tests for shrimp and seafood ( proved negative) when the allergist jimped out of his chair and sprung out in the reception area and returned to say the TV said we had had a earthquake of 5.9. an hour later i was at the butcher when i felt a bit woozy and realized i had felt an aftershock and again at home i had the same feeling.
several days later we had a sever hurricane. since we are 10 miles from the linden nj bay and 50 miles from my favorite beach i don't usually worry about hurricanes but this one was a doozy! hurricane Irene left my dad and i without power for 25 hours and broke the remainder of an old pine tree down. this was mild in comparison with neighboring towns where 2 towns away in cranford nj it wiped out both cranford town hall and the police dept buildings as well as demolishing several homes and flooding many others. for several weeks as one drove through certain sections of that town one could smell the musty oder of ruined belongings out on the curb.
the power companies brought in crews from as far as Minnesota and tree crews came as far as Texas. they worked 18 hour shifts to get everything back in order. i must say a big thank you to all who came to help us in NJ and the northeast. without their help i was told it would have been 1 year before ele was available!
also the neighbors were once again compassionate to each other. each helping each other out with generators and barbeques to us op the food before it was ruined.
the day after the storm was warm and sunny so it helped with the clean up.
now just about a month later mother nature in a crewel mischief night trick zapped us again with another storm but this time she sent snow mixed with rain with cooler temp. at 35 degrees. and i must note that here in new jersey NEVER can i remember getting 4-6" of snow before halloween! and remember some people were still cleaning up from the last storm the month before!
and again we lost ele for about 15 hours through the night. but once again i needed to get up ever 2-3 hours the help my dad find his way to the bathroom where i had rigged a work light with a gell pack battery. but i needed to light the was to turn it on since it has a limited charge of 4-10 hours.
i commeted" i can't believe that with all the new ele toys like i phones ect. i ended up using 1850's oil lamps till we went to sleep." i also had to remember how to cook in a pan on top of the stove to cook canned soup! ( as one can guess i use the microwave a lot for cooing the meals) but i must admit the crabcakes, pre cooked, were much better done in the oven.
unfortunately in the sept storm i had just cooked 2 doz meat balls which i trough out along with 10 hamburgers since they all defrosted. but again i caon't complain since we only had several large limbs to cut up. on the other had the towns up the hill from me just about 2 towns away were like war zones and totally impassable. their schools were closed for 1 week which means they have used all their snow days and it isn't even officially winter yet! some famialys who had well water had the worst problem in not having ele to pump their water.
my aunt who lives 15 miles from me in Bridgewater NJ was with out power for 5 days and came to stay with me and my dad she is 88 and dad her brother is 86. when i went back on monday to help her get clothes for the week it was only 45 degrees in her house at noon! we were lucky that it wasn't in january when it can become 0-15 degrees before any wind chill factor is added in. because then we'd have to worry about damage to the water pipes as well. and i heard that some families didn't get ele back until this past week, making it over 2 weeks with out ele for those families. remember we are not set up for heating our homes from fireplaces like they did over 2 hundred years ago. in fact people that had natural gas stoves and hot water heaters with electronic ignitions couldn't even get by and since it was colder outside they couldn't really barbeque ether. i was lucky to have a older gas stove/oven to cook on/in. which also gave us some heat as well.
but again we still did better in both storms that vermont which had some towns cut off from the world when their only main road washed away.
now an update on me Diana! i am lucky to have an understanding dad who when i came home dressed and removed my "hair" and cooked dinner and sat down at the dining room table he says" so where did cutie go (his name for me as diana)? is she eating dinner with us tonight?" so i went back and placed the wig back on my head. and sat down to dinner with him. it only came off to sleep and went back on when i went downstairs to eat breakfast in my flannel lined satin nightgown. which is the way i have been showing up (minus wig) to breakfast for the last year. as i said i feel as though i have one of the best dad's fo being sooooo understand in a "live and let live philosophy". at any rate it allowed me to be diana in fem for 2 days straight! yea! what i mean is hair (wig ) and all many times for grocery shopping and other errands.
more another time
hugs to all
Diana
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