Thanksgiving To Hell And Back......:)

and that is what it has been here.

Spent almost every night for a week cleaning until the very last minute.....and still had two bathrooms to clean and loose ends to take care of in every room when my brother arrived, but I figured, I would just keep working while he is here, until I finished it all. I was running on no sleep...... 2-3 hours in between shifts....but I was happy.......

Had spent the day Wesnesday laying down some River Rock linoleum in the small tiny side room....which is where the cat's litter box is...their bathroom, basically.....and there is a real stone flooring underneath I had put in when we first moved here....so I got a matching linoleum called River Rock to cover it to protect it like, a placement mat....and easy to wash.....too.
...That took some measuring and cutting....and this linoleum is pretty thick...but all said and done, I was ecstatic with the results.....


I had just about finished the TV/tea room, as well, laying down the rug, I had saved to put down on this holday, before the pets had a chance to ruin this one.....Photos are the tv room almost completed on Wednesday.....5 am-ish...., but one corner left to do, where the orange cabinet is.....

anyway.....it was a heavy, thick, wet snow all day, and it was iffy if my brother was even coming....as there was no guarantee that Stan could get out of here with unplowed quarter mile drive to go pick my brother up at the train station.........but Matt was coming, and Stan left to go pick him up, while I stayed here......and was just going to start on one of the bathrooms, and the lights began flickering on and off....for about an hour, and I was nervous.......

then....flicker, flicker/flicker....off.....no power.........in the dark with all of the animals....and pugs barking at every little howl sound the wind was making and the cracking of branches all around...We have some huge branches that we will need help to clean out of here...They are pretty massive. There was alot of damage all over this area.....


Luckily.....they brought a pizza in hand and 2 more large flashlights....as that was going to be our light source here, as I called them to let them know there was only one really good flashlight here....I don't trust unattendned every minute candle light.......

Apparently, I am wlriting a novel here, so I need to take a break for a little while...I am cooking our Thanksgiving dinner today....We just got back power at 2:30 pm today...Stan is gone with Matt....as Matt wanted to do some shopping for himself here to take back to the city....so it is my alone time right now.....but I need a break for a minute.....and start this thread. This could take awhile....though.....lol......

 

Bless your heart!

 

Hugs and kisses =]

 

It was rather cozy having a pow wow with pizza in the tea room at the glass table the first night, as there are some American Indian things in that room, as well as Asian.....I called it our powerless pow wow.....eating by flash light and so happy to see my brother.

We lost power about 6 pm, and our generator was out needing a tune up....doesn't that just figure.......so the temperature was dropping by the hour in this house. Matt and Stan went to bed, and the power came back on at about midnight, and I was happy thinking we would have our Thanksgiving the next day on Thursday.....and cleaned the upstairs bathroom , and went to sleep happy at about 5 am.

I awoke at 8 am, to find the power was out again.
Matt, who brings his laundry here to do, and had a massive suitcase filled with it, brought it down from the room he is staying in, and asked us to bring him back to the train station...he wanted to go home....and could not take this.....
I felt so sad and lost....this is Thursday morning on Thanksgiving. I told him to stay until at least the next day, to see if we get power back.....and he finally agreed.

The day went on without power, and I worried about the parakeets, who need it warm here, as it was showing only 60 degrees in this house.

We waited and hoping for power, and learned thousands were out in the area......and that it could be until Monday before all were restored.....so we called the power company many times......
A power line was torn in half here and we thought it could be live, and kept telling them that.....
With no results of any kind, we went to the diner in the neighborhood for Thanksgiving...Matt ordered a turkey burger and Stan and I ordered a pasta dinner called the Mafia.....pasta in red sauce with chicken medallions...... I loved the salad.....The owner of the diner came out and gave us an apple pie to bring home with us, as he felt badly our dinner took so long to be delivered to us. We did wait a long time for it, but never complained. How nice. I felt thankful for that and his kindness.....

still continuing.....on next answer.....

 

Earlier in the day on Thursday, Stan went to his nephew's house to borrow his generator, and it sat idly outside, as Stan did not know how to hook it up, so when we came home from the diner, the people who I gave two pugs to, came over and hooked it up for us. They are the ones who hooked up our generator in 2009 in the first place after being here without any power at all when we first moved here in 2008. We were without power then in December for 2 weeks, due to a major storm where so many were out in many counties, and a tree snapped in half on our power line on our property. We were last then...being only 4 houses back here...., so I thought we might be last again to get any power back.... Randy made a new electrical panel for it for our generator in 2009. He is a master electrician....so he hooked up this smaller generator for us Thursday evening which is half the power of ours, so we could have heat, at least in this house....a light or two and the television.....but that is all this generator could handle, but I was so thankful to get it warmer in this house, and put the birds in the bathroom down stairs here where it was warmest.....
Our Generator and this borrowed one both run on gasoline.....

I was slowly shrinking into a corner, though, late Thursday evening. It was not fun anymore, and Matt's spirits were so down...i felt I could not bouey him up anymore, or myself.....
I still very cold with a coldness in my bones that was not leaving, and the many layers i was wearing were not helping any.

I gave up and went upstairs to bed, where at least the tv in there was working, so I watched that for many hours before falling asleep. Matt and Stan already had gone to bed earlier.....

On Friday morning...yesterday...., Stan started calling the power company at 4 am, and finally got to talk to some supervisor around 9 am..... His persistence paid off...and she guaranteed someone would be here before 1 pm to look at things.....
Matt, who was going to go home decided to stay, as he felt we would be taken care of...We all felt hopeful again.....

Scouts came out around 11 am yesterday and had to sit there until the workers came to fix things.....They came
around 1 pm, and things were back and running at 2:30 pm yesterday. It turns out that there were three broken lines on our power lines back here......

so that brings me up to where Stan and Matt went shopping and I started this thread. We had our Thanksgiving dinner last night at 8 pm...the best i ever made....We all ate too much, and I felt sick all night from it. I ate too much, as it tasted so wonderful.....

Things are back and running now....and birds are chirping once again.....


I will follow next answer here with some photos of tea room and broken limb in front here....

I still have to clean the downstairs bathroom here, but I am too lazy today....We will have left overs today and Stan will bring Matt home tomorrow....

 

Photos of tea room.....

 

more....proud it was shining.....animals mess things up here rather quickly and I don't always have the mortiviation to make everything shine around here....

 

your place looks nice and cozy moon..

 

...2 more and one of the downed tree limbs from the massive oak tree in front....

 

so what am I thankful for this year....? Kind strangers....friends who came to the rescue here....family and friends....

How about you?



side note....we had 10 inches of snow on Wednesday in this area, but it was the heaviest, wet kind......

 

LOL...the animals find is so here, anyway.....

 

I love that in those photos you see your fur kids! That is what a home should be like, clean enough but comfy enough that the dogs know they can flop too.

 

Thanks, Heather....Yeah, the pets are very comfortable here.

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone once again. My brother and Stan left here about 10 am to drive Matt back to the city.....80 or so miles away.

Matt jogged with me and the pugs yesterday, and that was lovely. We stopped to take photos along the way at scenic spots.....
When Matt wanted to leave here on Thursday morning due to no power, he did tell us to bring the dinner makings to his place and stay there....but I could not leave the pets here for that long alone in a no power or heat situation.

Anyway, things had a very happy ending here....I showered Matt with his Christmas and love....and he is a very good brother....One lady that saw us,....an outside friend of mine.... and told me my brother was very good looking. yes, he is...

It was a lovely visit, and I am ready for whatever next chapter that is in this book called life.

 

They got to Matt's around 12:15 pm...They clocked it this time.....exactly 91 miles to Matt's door from mine....
Stan is on the way home....just in time to help me jog the dogs...wonderful...i have to go out there in that cold, gray, dank day out there today....ugh.....

Thanksgiving dinner this year makes me tired and Stan burp all night....so the rest may be heated for the dogs, and there alot left....the turkey was 23 pounds this year.....rice and shittake are gone, but stuffing, mashed potatoes and turkey still alot of......I cannot stand to eat any more of it...I am eating a turkey sandwich on rye with miracle whip and swiss cheese today. I am having half now and half when I get home from jogging.....