Now What?

John was fumbling around in the middle night and I asked him what he was doing. 'Turning off the irrigation' said he, walking out into the freezing in his bare feet and skivvies. He was back soon enough to put on some pants and slippers. I wasn't able to determine why he was turning off the irrigation. It had something to do with the power outage and the battery but I didn't want to know....

We were up early to make our coffee before PG&E turned the power off. We had decided it was unreasonable of the power company to expect everybody to have some sort of back up power because of the constant outages, then turn around, send a letter announcing the planned outage and then telling everybody not to use their back up power. We have solar batteries and a back up system which wasn't specifically mentioned, so we decided to ignore them. So, as it turns out, did everyone else. We could tell when the power went off because we could hear everyone's generators kick. on. Our system is completely silent and doesn't run on fossil fuel which is why we chose it, and it worked as it should. 

We thought the new pole was going in at the bottom of our lawn, but as it turns out, they are replacing a wooden pole on the corner with another wooden pole. There was a flag person directing traffic at the entrance to our narrow street so we waited a few minutes before we were permitted to proceed. I am out of words to express how shortsighted stupid I think this public utility is. And how irritated I get when their incessant commercials insist that everything they do is to 'keep you safe'

We took Spike up to the meadow. There was frost on the roof when we left the house but the hike up the hill was a good way to get the blood circulating, after which we went to Trail House for a hot coffee. I took a picture of the ceiling there which I think makes a good abstract.* 

When we came home, we found half a house stopped in front of our driveway. The other half is in front of it. They were waiting for someone to lift the power lines so they could get the house under them. As they got underway again we were able to inch into our driveway by driving over the neighbor's driveway and median strip below the narcissus next to our driveway. It struck me as quite funny in a last straw kind of way.

Our house was cold because the emergency circuit doesn't include the central heat, but our gas fireplace kept me quite cosy and I knit a hat for my neighbor while John went outside and planted spring onions. It didn't warm up much out there so he eventually came in and joined me by the fire.  The gas stove worked fine by lighting it with a match, so we won't have to go to Plan B for dinner. 

All in all, it worked out ok. PG&E didn't restore the power until about 4pm (instead of the promised 1pm) but nobody believes anything they say anyway. At least they got it back on today.

* I chose the main because how often does one come home to find a house blocking their driveway? The abstract is in extras.