A stormy fall

First came the rain and flooding, setting a new record for the wettest November. (And brought some great snow to the mountains)

Then came the snow. We had to resort to unusual means to get the trash down to the bottom of the driveway. Our driveway and road were a sheet of ice for several days.





















And then came WINDSTORM 2006! Seriously, this was a big one. Over 500,000 households lost power, some for quite a long time... like us, for instance. We got out power back at 10:00 last night after 8 days without power. The pictures below were taken the morning after, when we journeyed out with our chain saw to assess the damage. You can probably detect the reasons for the power outage. The bottom picture is right at the bottom of our driveway.

We got along pretty well... We took showers at the pool and at friends' houses, ate out part of the time, and wore our little head lamps around at night. We have a generator that powers our computers, microwave, frig and freezer, plus a couple lights. We slept on the futon in our family room, where the fire is, and we hung quilts over the entrances to keep the heat in the core of the house. It's kind of like camping in our house!




Being without power for so long has given new meaning to the prophesy of the coming of Christ in Isaiah, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light." Each day we look forward to the sun coming up, and are very aware of the coming of darkness in the evening. The activities of our day revolve around the available daylight. This helps us understand the longing of the Israelites long ago for their Messiah, the great Light who would overpower the darkness, who would give them direction and hope in a dark world. Each year we celebrate Jesus' birth at the darkest time of the year, when candles, Christmas lights, and the joy of family gatherings bring brightness into this dark time, just as Jesus, the light of the world, brings hope, joy and peace into our darkness.