The Big Power Outage

Saturday, the day after Christmas, was rainy and thundery here in western Oklahoma. But a winter storm was predicted to take the rain's place the next day. Sure enough, in the night, I woke up and laid there listening to terrible, howling winds, and freezing rain and sleet hitting the bedroom windows from both sides. Here is what we woke up to:

Later in the day, it looked like this:

Church services in the area had been cancelled that morning, we just stayed in and ate. Hubby had made ham-and-beans, and I got some cornbread made to go with them.

Then, it happened. Around 3:00, the power went out. That's a dreadful feeling, let me tell you, but it can't be helped. So we went into "powerless" mode. Thankfully, we have a gas heater, so we were able to stay warm. Without their technology-dependent games, the boys got bored, so they and I played Scrabble for awhile (plus some Uno after that).

Towards the end of the game, I didn't have very good choices of letter tiles!

While we were playing, the power came back on for .... maybe 3 or 4 minutes. Then off again, this time for good.

As the sun went down pretty early, that made for a long, dark evening. Out came the oil lamps, plus we had flashlights and a little-bitty LED "lantern" we could also carry around for quick, easy light. I don't know how many times I went in the bathroom, or started to go up the stairs, and still turned the light switch on. Even with the little lantern right in my hand, surrounded by darkness! Old habits die hard.

The wind howled all night and all into the next day. Power still out, and I didn't go in to work (they were out over there, too), but Older Son did. So we were up early, and I saw him off to work, 25 miles away. I had some peanut butter on Ritz crackers for breakfast, Younger Son also had some later.

An encouraging message with our magnetic letters.

I got out and salted the walk heavily, to combat the packed, slick sleet that accumulated everywhere.

The clouds started to break up and move out in the afternoon.

At one point somewhere, I cleaned and organized a few shelves on our back porch. That felt better, plus it was nice to accomplish something despite the circumstances.

One of our Older Son's friends came over, he was bored, so he and Younger Son and I played Uno. The dog tried to take part, but we wouldn't let her play.

I did some coloring while there was daylight to see good.

A little knitting by lamplight.

This was appropriate .... looking at a Lehman's Catalog by lamplight. They specialize in what they used to call "non-electric" items, catering to the Amish and other folks who live the old-fashioned way.

Lights still off all through Monday, and we were hearing it might be Thursday morning before power could be restored. There were a lot of towns affected by no power, including the bigger town nearby. That town, as well as our little town, had "warming stations" where folks could go and keep warm and eat and stay (with the help of generators).

I decided to do the dishes the old-fashioned pioneer way, which I've done before here for varying reasons. This time I used the camp stove that Hubby had set up on the regular stove. It actually did a very quick job of heating a lot of water for me.

Got the dishes sparkling clean! That felt better, too.

Coat and gloves and stuff drying on the back of the couch.

When I cleaned shelves, I found some mugs I had wondered where they went. These two are from when I was a kid, and my family and I vacationed in the summer out at the mountains in Colorado. These mugs came from Van Briggle Pottery in Colorado Springs, one with Mom's name and one with mine. Treasures! I heated some more water for some cocoa, I was tired of cold stuff!

Got the urge to pull out a couple of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder - LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS and LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. Sure makes you appreciate how they lived back then, as well as the modern conveniences we have now. Rather thought provoking to be reading about pioneer living by lamplight.

Hubby put our dog through her tricks. She can sit like this for quite awhile.

I got caught up on the recent news from my hometown in Kansas.

More knitting with good daylight.

Another magnetic letter message on the fridge, this one venting some frustration.

Now I have to say that these pictures above may be a little out of order, from how they were loaded on the phone, plus the fact that even if it was only 2 or 3 days of power out, they started to run together and seem the same. Another of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books, THE LONG WINTER, kept coming to mind, and how they almost got in a stupor as the winter wore on. They had to shake themselves and keep busy to keep from just languishing. I get it now, even though this wasn't near as bad. Monday and Tuesday seem kind of mixed up in my memory!

More Scrabble Tuesday evening with the boys after Older Son got home from work.

Reading in the LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS book, the chapter is appropriately titled "Winter Days and Winter Nights."

We moiled through our third dark evening, but hoping for a new report of power expecting to be back that night. Sure enough, at 10:15, KABLING, on came the lights and everything else that happened to be on. YAY!!! We were thankful. Thankful for power, and thankful for the linemen who were out in the nasty weather fixing the problems. That had to be miserable.

The next morning I was finally back to work as well, so Older Son and I were both up early as usual. These pictures show the slick, hard-packed sheet of sleet everywhere, but also ... lights! It was so good to see street lights and neighbors' lights again. That was rather eerie to have everything outside DARK.

Our little gas heater was a workhorse, and kept us reasonably warm, though we sure piled on the covers at night.

Back to normal! Civilization again!

I learned a lot from this little ordeal. You don't need as much to eat as you think you do. You can take "spit baths" in the cold. (Thankfully we had water!) You may be addicted to technology, and find it hard to "wind down" and do common, old-fashioned things, like reading a REAL BOOK. Being bored is no way to live. Thankfully, I have a lot of interests, but will say that the computer had been eating up a lot of my time for quite awhile. These "powerless" days put me back into some real living, and I liked it, and had missed it. Our family actually interacted and talked and played games here and there, instead of being glued to computer games or tv. That was a good thing that came out of these dark, dull days until the power came back on ..... I miss my guys sometimes, even though we're all in the same house. Food for thought. And I hope the wind doesn't blast like that for a long time, that was wild! It literally made the house shake. Glad we were prepared enough that it didn't go too badly, and thankful that the power came back on sooner than they first thought. Lots of lessons learned, and I "took notes" on what I might do differently if it happens again. Hopefully it won't, but this is the great plains with wild weather, and winter's just getting started. But our pantry and our oil lamps will be at the ready. And, praise God for protection and safety, not just for us, but for everyone affected. We're slowly getting back to normal!

The Flute

Above is a picture of me as a kid, with my first flute, I think it was a Bundy.

I had started piano lessons in 1st grade with a lady, then took lessons from another man teacher for probably 3 more years. Then, as 5th grade loomed, which was when instrumental music began in the school, I wanted to quit piano lessons, and do band. So Mom let me do that.

I remember one evening when kids and their parents met with the band instructor there at the school in one of the rooms, so we could look at instruments and decide if/what we wanted to play. I really wanted to play clarinet or saxophone, but as instruments were fairly expensive, and we weren't that well off (enough, but not a lot of extra $$), I looked at a flute, as it was the least expensive of all of them. I remember the instructor having me hold my arms out to the side (to see if they were plenty long enough for the flute, which is held sideways), and checking my smile (teeth and bite can be more or less suited to different instruments). He seemed to think a flute would be a good fit for me. So, flute it was.

That first year of band was interesting. I mainly remember almost hyperventilating and passing out from all the blowing (I think we all suffered that! Except for the percussionists, of course. ha ha), plus one pinky finger getting exhausted holding down one of the keys at the end of the flute. But we improved, learning notes and rhythm and ensemble playing, and WATCHING THE DIRECTOR. -ha- We played the usual slow, methodical band piece for the concert, with the junior high and high school bands also being on the program after us.

Another thing that went along with the usual band playing was .... contest time. This happened in both junior high (6th-8th grades in our school) and high school. The main thing I remember about contest pieces was NERVOUSNESS. I hated playing a solo in front of people. Not so bad in a group, but playing solo was terrifying for me. But I did take a piece just about every year. We usually had regional contest (maybe district before that? I'm not remembering well sometimes!), then state. If you made a good enough rating at regional, you could go on to state. I usually did kind of well, but sometimes just so so. This may be because I had kind of a love-hate relationship with the flute. Remember, I really wanted to play a different instrument, but had to pick flute. But I did enjoy music, so made the best of it.

The other day, I was looking through a piano book I had found at the thrift store, small pieces by Tchaikovsky. As I flipped through, I saw "Waltz," and as I looked at the notes, I realized, "AHA! That was what I played for contest on flute one time!" If it wasn't the first piece I ever took to contest, it was one of the first ones. I remember Mom practicing with me at home (she played piano), then I think someone else played piano for the actual contest.

The start of Tchaikovsky's "Waltz," which I played arranged for flute:

The solos were nerve-wracking, but I enjoyed the band and various groups. Following are a few pictures from high school days.

Pep Band, front row far right.

Pep Band, front row second from left.

Stage band, sitting behind the saxophones, wearing a cap.

Tuning up in the band room before a concert, far left. (My best friend is behind me, playing the saxophone.)

In junior high, and maybe some in high school, I had played the piccolo occasionally, which was hilarious, because I could literally carry my instrument in my pocket. This was usually for marching band a few times, but it was fun nonetheless.

Marching band in high school during state fair time (fall of '78, my junior year), but playing flute, not piccolo this time, far left edge of picture. Those uniforms were wool, and along with that overlay, THEY COULD BE VERY HOT ON A WARM DAY. Enough said! My senior year, we got new ones that were a lot more lightweight and comfortable!

Playing downtown in my home town for Christmas time. I'm smack in the middle of the front row, and that's the band director behind me, to the left of me in the photo. He was a good teacher, and I think he put up with a lot from us kids!

I kept up with flute playing through college years as well. Both at a junior college where I studied horse science, and at a four-year liberal arts college where I studied piano performance - and had flute as my secondary instrument - I played in the concert bands. At the four-year college, I also played in flute choir, which was unique and fun. It contained not only piccolo, but also alto flute and bass flute, which I had not encountered until then. The alto flute was like a flute on steroids, same thing but just bigger, with a lower range of notes. The bass flute was even bigger with an even lower note range, and actually doubled back around in the mouthpiece area, looking like a candy cane shape. Really wild. They were a blast to play! Familiar, yet different, and really added depth and harmony to the ensemble.

(If I can scan the photo from the yearbook, I'll add a picture of the flute choir later.)

After college at one point, I enjoyed a little guitar-flute duet playing with a classical guitarist there in my hometown. That was a unique experience, and some pretty neat music. We just played for fun, though, and never ended up performing any of it.

Marriage and family put a pretty severe cramp on all musical endeavors, but I managed to do a little of some things now and then. There were a couple of occasions for flute playing when we did our community cantatas in the spring. But after we moved to Oklahoma, at one point I had to sell my flute, due to finances. That made me sad, it was a nice Gameinhardt, and Dad had bought it for me when I got into playing at college. So I haven't touched or played a flute in YEARS, but I just know if I had the chance, it would all come back very quickly. I would like to try it again, so maybe that will happen in the future. Even though I say it was a love-hate relationship, it was still a lot of fun, and I had a lot of neat experiences with this instrument, sharing music with others.

Hunkering Down for the Holidays

Above, you see some grocery staples .... bread, milk and eggs. OK, immediately after Thanksgiving, we had a big storm go through this whole area, leaving a nice layer of ice, and causing electricity to go off for varying lengths of time in various places. Ours was off for the most part of one day. Others in the area had no power (or off-and-on) for a week or so.

Since then, it cleared out and days have been pretty nice.

Guess what. Today is Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is Christmas. Tomorrow night (Friday night) starts another round of storminess and rain in the state. The weather forecasters are still not sure EXACTLY what kind of precipitation or how much or where, they're still making updates. But then Saturday night and after, it looks to be rain, sleet, snow, ice .... just a nice mix of nasty stuff ALL THROUGH THE WEEKEND, maybe even into Monday. Hence, one last trip to Wallyworld a bit ago for stocking up on supplies, and a few more basic groceries. I did NOT want to have to get out after today. So hopefully, we are ready to hunker down and let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

I have a reason for being a little overboard on being prepared for a winter storm. A long time ago in Mom and Dad's earlier married years, there was a blizzard that occurred. For some reason, Mom had been a little lacking in the pantry, and they ended up being snowed in for three days. That scarce pantry scene never happened again with her, she learned her lesson! And I took the story to heart, too. KEEP THE PANTRY STOCKED, ESPECIALLY IF A WINTER STORM IS MOVING IN.

I know there's a lot of joking that goes on about shelves going bare of bread and milk and such in stores when the weather folks are crying, "WINTER STORM!" But I'd sure rather be prepared and have what's needed without worrying. Because of the holidays, we're all at home for the long weekend. Now just praying the power stays on through all this.

Tree Transition

10-31-2015

11-16-2015

11-17-2015

11-25-2015

11-27-2015

11-30-2015

12-1-2015

12-3-2015

Ice

Thursday, on Thanksgiving, it rained all day. Then the cold came. Friday and Saturday saw ice accumulating all over this area of the state. As much as we got, I think they got it a little worse to our east.

Friday, the icing began. Except for Hubby running uptown to the grocery store for chili supplies, we stayed put. (See previous post for photos.)

Yesterday, our power was out. I woke up around 6:30 to our computer backup "beeping" because the power was off. As sleepy as I was, I tried to look at my clock radio alarm to see what time it was. I was met with darkness. "Ohhhh .... the power's out." So it was a quiet day. Did some reading by the front window, and one of our son's friends came over (he was bored!), and we all visited. Hubby fixed food on the camp stove, set up on top of our regular stove. Thankfully, we have gas heat.

Breakfast from the camp stove.

Calls to PSO gave ever later times for the expected return to power. Finally they were saying 8 p.m. The "Bedlam" game was to start at 7 p.m. (OU vs. OSU) Then suddenly a little after 4 p.m., the power came back on. Yay! THANK YOU TO THE LINEMEN AND CREWS who have to get out in this stuff to restore power and make roads safe! YOU ARE APPRECIATED.

Morning and evening views yesterday out our west window.

So today, with it still overcast and cold, but hopefully the ice storm shenanigans ending, this is how it looks here in our neck of the woods.