#we're getting a pretty heavy winter storm and have the fire on. spending my time productively

[canary-song]

Hey. Hey hello

Thistle and Weeds by Mumford and Sons

Noir Peter type song

[portraitoftheoddity]

Lena's Christmas report...

So, I headed up north the 18th to spend the week of Christmas with my family, and when I get there, Dad is sick. I work remotely Monday and Tuesday. Within two days, Mom and I are also sick, and I spend a good three and a half days as a coughing, sniffling disaster, though I still managed to do a pretty good job on the jigsaw puzzle mom and I got out. My aunt and uncle get there around the 22nd when I'm pretty much in the middle of it, but thankfully avoid getting sick.

Then, Thursday night, the storm rolls in. It's been snowing every day up until then and mostly in the 10s-20s temperature wise (ºF), but the pressure front comes in with drastic temperature shifts and winds gusting at 60mph. (If you don't know what a 60mph wind feels like, imagine standing in the bed of a pickup truck traveling down the highway at 60mph). At 2am Friday, the power goes out. It comes back briefly, then goes out for good at 5am.

At 6am, my mom and I both go downstairs (it is still pitch dark out) because the wind is too loud for either of us to sleep, shit keeps banging around, and the house itself is shaking from the wind (my dresser was rattling. FROM THE HOUSE SHAKING FROM THE WIND OUTSIDE). The christmas tree on the deck, which is in a heavy metal stand wired to the deck, keeps blowing over, then getting blown back up, and the grill has been blown clean over. As the sun comes up, it becomes clear multiple trees are down, though luckily none of them landed on the house or the driveway (some of the neighbors weren't so lucky -- a couple down the road had their roof partially torn off).

Friday, it pours and the wind roars most of the day. It gets up to 50ºF, which is insane.

The power stays out. Apparently something like 6% of all the people in the state have no electricity.

With not a lot else to do, I end up running D&D for my mother, aunt, and uncle (on their request) and we play through the first half of a homebrewed adventure I wrote with a dungeon crawl, by candlelight. (It was delightful.)

Luckily, my parents have a backup generator because they've lived through enough winter storms to know power outages out in the sticks can last a long-ass time. The generator is wired to a few circuits for essentials like keeping the fridge running and the water pump functioning so the pipes don't freeze. Also the internet router, because priorities.

This is important, since Saturday, it's fuckin' -5ºF out.

Have you ever gone hiking when it is -5ºF?

Because I now have!!!

We headed to the conservation trail area down the street (maybe a 2 mile drive?) and passed not one, not three, but TEN DOWNED POWER LINES. Just on one road. We then put on microspikes and went out on a trail I've gone on dozens of times but which had been turned into ICED OVER CARNAGE (Remember that 50ºF? And all that snow we had before? Followed by a rapid freeze? Whooooo boy). Whole sections of trail are turned into ice slides, which, HALLELUJAH MICROSPIKES. Holy shit those are amazing. You can just... walk up ice. Also, there were downed trees everywhere from the windstorm, many over the trail. We started clearing what we could as we went, dragging branches and smaller trees to the sides of the trail, though a few big ones we jus had to climb over or under and leave for the trail maintenance crews who would be out with chainsaws. It was a hell of a workout, so despite the temperatures, I was goddamn toasty.

Power stays out.

At this point we're not sure how much fuel the generator has, but Dad checks on it and says the gauge looks okay. Just to be safe, we fill up a ton of water bottles and some buckets and stuff with water and make sure there's batteries in all the flashlights and lanterns.

The stove and oven run on gas, thankfully, not electric, so dinner is delicious. Mom and Dad and I take turns alternating sitting by the fire or the one functioning light in the house and reading aloud to each other from a book by a local author while my aunt and uncle are out visiting a cousin.

(That night, it's so cold I can't sleep)

Christmas day: Still No Power, about 9ºF out, but sunny. We get a roaring fire going.

I get my own pair of microspikes. ^_^ (along with some further hiking gear, some nerd shit and some drinkin' supplies).

In the afternoon, family D&D continues. Uncle solves a puzzle, Aunt picks some locks and Mom kills a Wight. We watch probably a dozen utility trucks going by up and down the road, between tree cutting crews and those trucks with the people-buckets they can lift up to power lines. Then Dad gets the TV hooked up to the backup power after dinner so we can all watch the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (which was so dumb and so fun and that song will be stuck in my head forever).

Then, at the end of the evening, in a Christmas Miracle -- the lights finally come on!

Today I headed home, and my apartment seems to have come through unscathed with no apparent power loss. But despite the sickness and cold and lack of power, it was honestly a really fun holiday break and I'm being pestered for another D&D game by my relatives and mom wants help leveling her ranger.

Hope you all had a good week!