Within 24 hrs.: From –12C to +10C

The fact that this winter is strange just got a new meaning. Yesterday’s minus 12C with following snow storm, kept us glued to the woodstove, while the plus 10C today makes me want to throw the darn thing out of the house. And now even the sun is shining like on any spring day in April. The 3 or 4 inches of snow from last night are melting like butter in a pan. Yes, it’s very wet outside and sneakers are not the kind of shoes one would want to wear unless one likes to dip the feet into some wet and cold slush. But hey, let me start at the beginning. My first coffee had settled in my stomach, when Molly needed to get outside. I rushed into my shoes, I mean boots, and trotted out into winter wonder land. The top snow layer was yet frozen, producing a crunching noise at every step. The damn snowplow had again pushed up a wall of snow at the entry of our driveway. You gotta love that. Molly went about her business right quick and we retreated to the house. Standing in the hallway looking into the kitchen, I wondered why the lights had gone out. It was still kind of dark and i WAS SURE I had left the light on.  The answer to the mystery came as a revelation. WE HAD A POWER OUTAGE.  But why in the world would there be a power outage on a day without wind? Ok, we had some freezing rain, so could it be one hell of an ice accumulation on the wires?  I was stunned. Bea came down and we threw each other question marks. OK, coffee had been done before the power went, but what about toast for breakfast?  The solution to that was still in the basement where we keep our propane camp stove and the small propane tank. Do you know that you can make great tasting toast in a pan with a little butter? Works like a charm. Our kerosene light threw a cozy shine around while we had breakfast in the dining room.  But then, after that,…….???  No internet, no news readings. An old transistor radio squawking the news in French…that would be it until the power would come back. Around 11am, the temps had risen to around +5C and all ice had melted off, so I was figuring I could drive over to the post office  and maybe get some water from a neighbour who was running a generator. And that neighbour told me why we had a power outage. Apparently, while roads had been icy this morning, someone had experienced difficulties in staying on the road getting a spin on the car and hitting and knocking over a power pole, with the result of plunging Welshpool into the dark, a truly wonderful turn of events this morning.   The day before yesterday - Strong wind and very cold  So we had to figure out how to spend the day without most of the utilities. We do have an old-fashioned landline phone which works without power and a cell phone though. In order to have some fun I found a couple of my old exercise books from grade 1-3 which i have been dragging along through several countries, but never really taken the time to read them page for page. Whoa..a bad storm                      .…and a car with very special door   Left: I always liked to plan property layouts And it was hilarious. How kids express themselves when given a free hand is just too funny. And then, of course, the books contained little drawings. Amazing little pieces of kid’s art. But beside of all the funny stuff I started wondering whether today’s kids are learning similar stuff or not. My exercise book’s subject was “Heimatkunde”" which means learning about your home community. These 55-year-old entries showed that I learned about flowers, gardens, farm and farm animals, about our closest neighbourhood with street names and finally about our city. I have never ever visited a modern school of today nor do we had kids of our own in school. But maybe there is somebody out there who could tell me what kids learn about in school today. Anyway, the day went with a lot of laughing and fun and I think we did not suffer through the power outage. In the contrary, it gave us stuff we can think about. While we had fun, the only village store on the island had to close its doors, as tills and data do not work without power. Their only generator keeps the freezers and fridges going. At 3pm, I was reading a book, the power came back. Aaaah…what a relief. Soon time for me to make Supper, and what do you think? Macaroni, fried-up bacon+pork, mushroom, left-over carrots and peas, a mix of eggs and sour cream with Italian seasoning, topped off with a layer of cheddar, decorated with parsley and ketchup. Baked to perfection in the oven.