(with apologies to Robert Frost - I had to stop for pics of these "swung" birches near home)
OK, so this post is a bit delayed . . . it turns out we've been busy as you'll see. New England got a bunch of rain and ice/sleet overnight last Thursday - in our neighborhood, the trees and bushes are glazed, not merely frosted. I haven't seen this level of small-to-medium damage in previous storms, and in fact there are a significant number of large trees and big branches down. However, further west and north there are serious downed limbs, trees and power lines, and well over half a million households in MA/NH lost power for a significant amount of time.
Our friends Brian and Edith, from a couple of miles west, didn't have a lot of damage, but they didn't have power either, until Sunday afternoon. Neither did Brian's workplace in Littleton, although Edith's work is on generators in much harder-hit Worcester. By Friday afternoon, their house was in the low fifties, not to mention dark and without running water (they have a well with an electric pump). The solution? Party at Christi and Adam's for the weekend . . . they brought over their spoilable foods and an extra Guitar Hero guitar, and we rocked it even hahdah for most of the weekend (as well as getting xmas trees, setting ours up, cleaning up their yard and draining their pipes, Edith getting some work done, and Christi and Margot surviving lingering colds).
In the end, B&E's power came back Sunday afternoon, but Brian had drained the pipes Saturday afternoon to prevent a burst in the 15-degree overnight temps. So, Monday was refill-and-monitor day for their heating system. Since I haven't heard sob stories, I guess everything went OK!
Other folks at work were in a similar boat or not as lucky. Multiple people had three- to five-day power outages, lots of downed trees/branches, and even significant roof damage from falling limbs. Hang in there, folks!
1 comment:
Indeed, the heat is on now. There was a bit of a scare when I couldn't get the upstairs zone working, which inspired the purchase of a pocket infrared thermometer, but I eventually found the right combination of knobs to turn in order to get it going. (I was afraid that there was somehow still a frozen section, but it turns out the entire zone was apparently full of air, which was not being purged by water when the zone was on.)
Annnyyywayys, we had a great time with you on "vacation" a mile from our house. Thanks!
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