Just wanted to let you all know I’m still alive….barely. Thursday a tremendous storm swept through the Pacific Northwest. Our power was wiped out Thursday night. We were due to leave for California on Saturday, although Seatac was closed on Friday. Temperatures were dropping into the 20s and there was no heat. We played board games by fire and candlelight with the neighbors to pass the time. We “group” cooked, as some people had no stove or hot water. We have a gas stove and water heater so I made mac and cheese. Our neighbors barbequed and we all ate together with whatever food was still good. (And not a lot I tell you!) And I was so cold, I actually drank alcohol to keep warm. Course, that made for some lively board game playing from a very mouthy me. lol. (And I did not get a migraine! WOO HOO!) So three weeks after losing all our food in one fridge, we have now lost all food in both fridges and all three freezers. Sigh. All the new replacement food I bought is bad.

At 6:10 am on Saturday morning the knock of the limo driver to take us to the airport was what woke us up. We did end up making our flight but it was close. And nearly impossible to get ready and finish packing in the dark. We ended up leaving a bunch of Christmas presents on accident.

I believe the power was restored yesterday, but have not been able to completely verify that. 24 houses in our neighborhood had trees fall on them (I will post pictures when we return to Seattle tomorrow, provided we have power.) Cars were crushed, trees blocking streets, it looked like a hurricane had come through there. Every house on our street had trees fall on it, except ours. Cranes were lifting the trees off of houses and cars at $3,000 a pop. What struck me then, as always about Washington, was in the morning, people started trickling out of their homes to survey the damage, and groups of neighbors just started working together to clean up. There is such a sense of community instead of individuals in Washinton. In California, people would be cleaning up their own houses and keeping to themselves instead of congregating at houses with the worst damage and trying to help clean up. People walked from house to house checking on each other. Those with chainsaws walked around to neighbors and started cutting up the large trunks and trees blocking the road. THIS is why I love where we live so much. It’s a part of the world still untouched by selfishness, self centeredness and hate. It’s still that proverbial village it takes to raise a family. I’ll take gray skies and rain any day to be able to live among other people like this.

I’ve got to get going, I’ll hopefully be able to answer comments and visit your blogs when we return to Seattle.