Monday Mischief: Turkey Haze

Well I had a post all ready for today’s Monday Mischief – the pictures were edited and the text was saved. Only one more picture needed to be added. I did a search for the title and…..nothing.

I searched through my photos, the recycle bin, unedited photos (just in case a sudden turkey-filled triptophan-induced haze was still muddling my brain), and my camera. Still nothing.

Even Daisy was searching everywhere for the missing pics.

Could they have hidden under the bed, Mommy?

Maybe they went out for a romp in the leaves?

No I’m not playing under here! Those tricky pics could be napping under my blanket!

Of course, just recently I’d gotten efficient and cleared my camera of photos I’d already edited and – supposedly – transferred to my computer. I guess I edited the photos but forgot to transfer them to my computer, so with one simple click – POOF – gone into oblivion. And I can’t reshoot them because it took me quite some time to get the most important photo. ::sigh::

Who’s responsible for this outrage?! I demand answers!

We hope all our fellow US bloggers had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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Monday Mischief: Nor’easter Double Whammy

Well, Mother Nature was the undisputed mischief maker again last week – just a couple of days after we finally got power back in our area after Hurricane Sandy, we got hit with a nor’easter that dumped 7 inches of heavy snow on us.

And then had the nerve to throw us into freezing darkness yet again with another blackout.

Close call outside our living room window.

The snow was so heavy that the branches of the huge trees around our house were weighed down to the ground and formed a white curtain around us. Some of those branches were broken at the trunk.

Two 50 year old trees behind our house met when their limbs were weighed down to the ground. Those long limbs are usually 20 feet off the ground. It almost looked like they were holding hands for strength….or blocking our view to the devastation we didn’t know was happening in the back end of the yard.

We’ve had blizzards that have covered us with almost 3 feet of snow. And they were beautiful. But never have they carried the destructive power of this snow.

Downed 60-foot tree next to our bedroom window. We were surrounded!

We lost more trees and large limbs because the trees were already compromised by the hurricane just a week before.

Large low branch broken off another 50 year old tree….and aimed right at the bedroom window!

And, frighteningly, the snow weighed down the tarp on our broken roof enough to cause more damage – the bedroom ceiling is now even more cracked and has bowed further inward. Needless to say, my stress level is pretty darned high right now.

The roofer can’t come until the day after Thanksgiving. Once he assesses the damage, he has to order the materials to rebuild the trusses, roofing materials, soffits, etc. After that we need to replace the shingles that broke off and find someone to fix the ceiling. I have no idea how long this will take, but my guess is that we won’t be done until after the first of the year sometime – well into winter.

Speechless. That used to be a tall tree….

We love snow. Usually we can’t get enough of it. But this year – just this once – we’d like it to hold off until those of us with roof damage have been made whole again. As much as I love snow, I prefer it to be outside of my house and not sleeping in the bedroom with us!

Note to Mother Nature: If we send you some really good dark chocolate, could you smile on us for just a little while? 😉

Oh come on – give me some snow I can PLAY in!

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Monday Mischief: The Opportunist Havachon

The hurricane may have unnerved Daisy while it was here, but she certainly made up for lost time during the five-day blackout afterwards.

We had set up a bridge table with a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle in front of the fireplace during the blackout. To us it was a fun pastime; to a sneaky Havachon, it was 1,000 opportunities for mischief.

Who, me? Can’t you see how innocent I look?

During the light of day, we heard that unmistakable chewing sound coming from the area of the puzzle, which is nowhere near Daisy’s food bowl. DD called her over. Out from between the chairs and sofa came a head-down, slow-slinking pup – we knew that our dear marvelous, mischievous Daisy was back in action again.

As soon as DD approached her, she dropped what used to be a puzzle piece from her mouth. Now it’s garbage:

Destructo Pup turns her wrath on OUR toys!

I didn’t do it….it was dark…..it could have been anyone…….maybe they’re Daddy’s teeth marks….?

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Monday Mischief: Superstorm Sandy’s Direct Hit

Yup, ol’ Sandy got us but GOOD. That Frankenstorm was the real mischief maker this time, and its mischief was epic. 

A 50 year old tree fell square on our house, crushing and buckling the roof, cracking the ceiling in the master bedroom, and causing leaks.

For our blogging buddies from other countries, this was a “superstorm” unprecedented in our state. A hurricane met with two other storms, creating the “perfect storm” depicted in the George Clooney movie. But that wasn’t all – it happened during a full moon, which caused waters to rise higher than they would have at any other time during the month. This was a violent attack by Mother Nature and especially bad because our region doesn’t get hurricanes normally, so our buildings aren’t prepared for them.

Huge roots of the tree that fell on us; just beyond it, you can see the roots of another tree that fell between our home and our next door neighbors. Our entire block looks like a war zone.

View from one of the bedroom windows. Every one of our 4 bedroom windows had large limbs pressing on it. It was a truly scary sight.

And yet we were extremely blessed. So many thousands of people in our state have no homes left at all – they were either swept away by raging flood waters, demolished by trees, or blown to smitherines. People were killed or lost. The fire marshall made door-to-door visits to homes like ours with severe damage, deciding whether to condemn our homes and force us to evacuate – again, we were blessed. He said our foundation was stable so we could stay.

We had no power or heat for 5 days, but once again, we were fortunate – many homes still have no power, with no anticipated return to normalcy. We hunkered down and bundled up in lots of layers and slept under tons of blankets – my personal count was 5 layers of clothes, 3 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of gloves, and a fleece ski headband for my ears. (And a partridge in a pear tree. LOL) 😉 Daytime temps were in the 40s and nights have been in the 30s, so I slept under 9 heavy blankets as well as a sleeping bag made to withstand 20 degree temps. It was dark, dreary, cloudy and cold for five solid days. 

We have an electric stove/oven, so we couldn’t cook. We had prepared as best as possible, but we were pretty much down to fruits, nuts, popcorn, precooked potatoes and the like by day 4. When the power came on Friday night, we celebrated like it was New Years Eve.

The storm really scared Daisy. The 100 mile-per-hour winds scared us all, but Daisy trembled pretty hard no matter how much we tried to console her. Her instincts took over and she sought shelter – high ground and cover. We were all sitting on sofas in the family room, and she nervously climbed on the pillows behind our backs (for high ground, I guess) and squeezed under our arms. You just can’t argue with a dog’s instincts – somehow she knew that she needed to get cover and stay out of possible flood waters, or at least that’s how it seemed. She’s never reacted like that before.

Our priority after the storm was to keep ourselves and Daisy warm and safe until the power came back on. We lit a fire in the fireplace every night, played games all day into the evenings to keep ourselves occupied, and did a jigsaw puzzle too. DD said that except for being cold and lacking food, she really liked “living a 17th century life”! She enjoyed not being tethered to electronics of any kind and being together every day. I agree with that perspective. So we’ve decided to have Friday night fires in the fireplace along with games all through fall and winter. 😀

We kept Daisy bundled in multiple layers of blankets as well as her little pink sweater – she seemed quite content on our laps, despite an apprehensive gleam in her eyes!

We’re on odd/even gas rationing plus we have a water shortage because so many reservoirs were drained to prevent them from overflowing. Some businesses are just starting to open, and food is beginning to be delivered to some supermarkets.

Tree crews, police, and all kinds of professionals have been flocking into our state to help with the cleanup – God bless them all! A tree company from Michigan was able to bring their cherry picker and crane in, and they removed the tree from our house. It was quite a lengthy and cautious operation!

It took a crew of 7 strong guys, a crane, a cherry picker, and 2 more trucks to get that huge tree safely off our house.

Our prayers are with everyone who suffered far greater losses from this storm. We’re helping in the relief efforts and always wish we could do more. It’ll be quite some time before our roof and ceiling are repaired, but for now we have a few huge tarps over the entire front of the house, bolted in place with 2x4s (this was the recommendation of the roofer). AND we’re expecting a noreaster in a few days – wish us luck!

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