I’m Back!

Hello!  I am back!  My cable & internet services were just restored about an hour ago.  I’ve got so much to blab about I barely know where to start.  First thing I should probably say is that I will definitely, finally get around to seeing all your photo hunts!  What bad timing this storm had.  I finished my hunt on Friday, went to my grad class on Saturday, hosted a party Saturday night, power went out Saturday night.  So I never got around to seeing all your hunts.  My plan: Get this story of what’s been up around here for the past few days posted, watch some cable tv tonight ( Behind the Seams with Tim Gunn is on tonight!) then spend tomorrow catching up in the blogosphere and writing my round-up of all the photo hunts.  Sound good?  Here’s how it all began.

I mentioned in my last post that we were bracing for a storm here in the northeast.  We just had no idea exactly how it was going to track or how much we were going to get.  I had been planning for our Halloween party that night.  I kept tabs on my email, watching for notes from friends saying they were going to stay home due to the weather predictions.  Shockingly, none of the invitees decided to “regret.”   While I was cooking and prepping that afternoon, this is what it looked like outside:

Not unusual to see snow in New England, but snow like this in October?  Practically unheard of.

“Do you believe this Mom?”

We continued with our decorating and food prep:

Our friends arrived and we had our party with the power out.  I took these pictures a short time before our power went out around 6pm.  Lots of candles, the radio with batteries on the local classic rock channel, and friends we’ve been friends with since the times when those songs were Top 40 hits – it was a really good party!

Unfortunately, by the time it was time to leave, travel conditions were not good.  Luckily everyone arrived home safely.  The next morning, everything was out- power, phones, cell service.    My yard looked like this:

That is the crazy-huge sycamore tree (that I regularly start complaining about around Thanksgiving due to the obnoxious amount of giant-sized leaves it drops)  in my front yard, still in full, green leaf.  The heavy, wet, snow dragged branches down to the ground.  We are quite lucky none of those laden branches fell on our house.

The view from my back deck:

My back yard is a wreck.  Luckily the snow is melting quickly, but we have LOTS of clean up to do.  As soon as we get our hands on a chainsaw, we have plenty of dragging and stacking to do.  Here’s a look around the yard a couple days later:

Looking at my house from the back yard.

Fence crushed by fallen trees.  Luckily, some limbs dragged into that area have so far prevented the dogs from taking a walk around the neighborhood.

A tree poking through the roof of my shed.

Paw print on the deck.

All in all, I consider myself one of the lucky ones in this storm.  As of this writing, there are still thousands in the area without power.  My power came back on Tuesday, and I had the ability to cook on my gas stove and take hot showers the whole time due to our gas hot water heater.  (I vow to never move to a house without natural gas!)  Here on Thursday night, my cable & internet services are restored.  I do believe in Karma afterall – maybe we got to be the lucky ones because Meghan and I were scared within inches of our lives in July. Early reports are saying the damage to this area is more severe and more widespread than June’s devastating tornado . Please send good thoughts toward Massachusetts and other parts of the northeast affected by this Freaky Freakin’ Snowstorm, to use Kanniduba‘s words, so that everyone will soon have all their power and services restored.

Contemplating the new look of their little part of the world