Daily Notes- September 7

We have been without.  Power.  Yesterday as I was leaving the library inTown with my haul of books--the sky over my left shoulder looked very dark.   I walked across the street to the grocery parking lot and put my books in the car and headed for the grocery.  Deb--- corn was 2 for a dollar today.

I was selecting corn and all hell broke loose outside.  Wind blowing sideways.  The rain--sideways. The sky black.  A Hurricane it seemed.  But they say, perhaps a tornado.

I got to the deli to order sliced ham for "Mr Picky" (the clerk and I refer to my husband's very specific wants this way) and BOOM.  The power went out and the store went to emergency lighting.  I selected the remainder of my groceries and then had time to wait out the rain while the cashiers tried ringing up customers in the dark.  By the time I got out to the car--rain had stopped.

The drive home--about 10 to 15 minutes--was quite interesting.  Trees down, branches in the street, no traffic lights.  And then as I got closer to my street (home)---flooded streets, trees in the street and very close to the house three power poles--looking exploded--in the street.  Wires everywhere.  And I made the decision to skirt around the pole--going left out of my lane  (no one coming) with my left tires in someone's yard (sloped and sliding mud) slowly but not slowly enough to get stuck--and here comes this WOMAN running full speed toward me from the opposite direction.  I am in her lane.  To my right is a downed power pole.  Towering over my car. She is coming at me. I flashed my lights and screamed STOP (not that she could hear me)--at the very last minute she slows to a stop but only long enough to drive to my left close enough for me to stare into her crazy eyes.

I was really hoping--since she was so far to my left--that she would get stuck in that slippery mud.

I flashed my headlights at all oncoming traffic as I traveled and waited to turn onto my street. Willing them to slow down and not kill anyone.

We have had no power since 12:24 (lunchtime) yesterday.  We have a generator but it took my husband (who has difficulty remembering things these days) several hours to get the generator working.  So we had hot water, cold refrigerators, microwave last evening and until about 20 minutes ago.  We even had A/C (thankfully as moist air makes breathing difficult for us).  No internet but for some odd reason we had tv.  I would have thought tv was also on the power poles.

The team that put in the three new power poles were from New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  Not Maine.  So they had to "wait" for the Pole Teams to travel.

So there you have it---I missed you all!!!