The Storm

The winds were howling around here last night. The power went off at midnight, and just came back on this afternoon at two. We are amongst the lucky, getting it back so soon. With over a million homes without power, they are predicting days before some are restored. Out on the peninsula they have had outages up to ten days. Of course, most of those homeowners are well prepared for it, based on their past experiences. Our house got down to 56 inside. In an effort to stay warm I have many layers on - long johns, fleece pants, running socks, fleece socks, running shirt, sweatshirt, fleece pullover and a hat. Most of the time I kept the hood up on my sweatshirt too. For a while I wore shoes, but they were bugging me, so I added the fleece socks and switched back to my Birks. I'm waiting for the house to warm up enough now to shed some layers - and maybe get a shower.

We had the gas fire going, but we have open ceilings in that room so it only heated the immediate area. We made one trip to Starbucks first thing in the morning - the line there was out the front door. The Y is behind Starbucks - they had no power, but the shopping center did. Lucky for us! Later in the day Eric dug out the camp stove and we heated water for tea. I found out the power was off when my alarm went off at 4:30 for Pilates - I stumbled around in the dark till I found my cell phone and tried calling the Y. Got no answer, so I went back to bed. That was a treat!

Though some huge branches came down, we didn't lose any trees. It looks like a few dropped over the road, we saw a couple on houses or in yards. Today as I was walking the dog, I took a good look at our trees and decided that I had underestimated their height. I'd say they range from 75 to 125 feet. I also counted - three in the front garden, ten in the backyard. Of these, there are probably eight that I cannot fit my arms around. The middle one in the front is a skinny, woodpecker drilled thing that is mostly dead. Eric and a neighbor have grand plans to take it down on their own. It's probably an okay plan because it is one of the shorter ones. I guess we'll find out next summer.

Now the weather forecast is for mixed rain and snow, temps from 32 to 38. A few of us are planning to drop into the valley in the morning for a 16 mile run - starting at 0'dark thirty so we will be done in time for coffee. I guess it'll be a replay of the weather at the Seattle Marathon. We are following that up with our annual Kelly's Christmas Light Run (go here and scroll down to December 3, 2005 for an explanation) and a potluck, then up again for Sunday morning's run. That'll be a good amount of mileage in two days. I hope the weather cooperates and it all goes according to plan!