Is it really the 9th?

I spent a great New Year's week at home with my granddaughter, Mom and Andy. The kid and I went sledding and we built a 10 foot long snow monster in my front yard. We drank hot cocoa with ghost marshmellows and before bed we had sleepy time tea. I miss my little partner in crime.

On Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, we had a Chinook wind with an attitude blow through here. A neighbor clocked the wind at 95 miles an hour. Seriously. I slept on the couch because the wind and rain were hitting my bedroom window so hard it sounded like the Marine Drum and Bugle Corp. Then the power went out. I have candles and blew them out before midnight to pretend to sleep. Shortly after that I heard a bang from my bedroom...sounded like a tree hit the side of the house (I have a cherry orchard in my backyard). So I opened my bedroom door and it was raining in my room and the wind was blowing and it was horrible. My window blew out. It was dark, my candles wouldn't stay lit so I could explore the situation and see how much damage was done (note to self, get batteries for the flashlight) so I did the only thing that could be done. I closed the door and called my brother. On my cell phone because the power was out and my telephone wasn't working. His smoke alarms were going off because their power was out. We decided there was nothing to be done in the dark, so I just laid there the rest of the night expecting to be in Oz by morning. But I wasn't, no witch's legs with magic shoes under the corner of my house, no munchkins to help clean up the mess, no critters and creatures to give a rip about my broken window, so I covered the window in my bedroom with a board, picked up broken glass, and called it adequate. Then I went into the little bedroom adjacent to my room because the basement door is in that room and I wanted to check and see if the basement was flooded (it wasn't) and holy smokes, the window in that room had blown out. But I was late for work (always a bad thing to be late at a new job) so I called my brother again and he said he'd come over and see what he could do. He called my landlord and together they installed new glass in my windows before noon.

I have been having problems with dimming lights, a stove and microwave that weren't working and heaters that didn't put out any heat since the big wind. Today a PUD Power Guy came by and asked, "you having power problems?" "Yep." "Got a loose wire up there," he pointed to the power pole, "I'll have to turn your power off for a few minutes to fix it." And he did. Now I can use my computer (haven't since Tuesday), talk on my phone, and cook. Unfortunately, everything in the freezer thawed out. But other than that, I'm back in business.

The foot and a half of snow that was in my front yard is gone. Our beautiful snow monster is just a memory. I asked Dad if it was time to plant peas. He laughed at me. There will be more snow, he assured me. Okie dokie, I'll take that as a not yet.

So that's how my year started. New job, new windows, new haircut (did I say I cut my hair?) So far, so good. I'm still breathing and really, that's my number one priority for this year.

Happy new year. (356 days till Christmas....something to think about.)