springdellgirl: COVID-19 Quarantine: Days 306-310

Day 306: 1-13-21 (Wednesday)

We had another freak windstorm very similar to that horrible one in 2015 that took out our power for 9 days. It struck at around 2am. The wind was horrible all night and all morning. Gusts over 70 miles per hour. It finally started quieting down around 2pm. Our power went out at 6:14 am. Yes. I know the exact minute. It was too dangerous for Tyler to get the generator hooked up until a little after 2 pm so we got pretty chilly. The girls and I stayed in our beds huddled under blankets. Tyler huddled under blankets on the couch monitoring our giant pine trees and the wind. School was cancelled. Tyler's work was cancelled. Trees are down all over town. A lot of destruction of homes and property. Two people were killed. It is super sad. The damage isn't quite as bad as 2015 but very close.

I tried to roll with things. I stayed snuggled up in bed with my book and my box of specialty chocolate covered marzipan that I got for Christmas. I napped. I read. I was on my phone. I made the best of things. Once the generator was hooked up we definitely warmed up. Our generator is powerful enough to keep our furnace running, fridge(s), chest freezer, lamps, a TV, microwave, and a few appliances. It is just not powerful enough to run everything like our oven, dishwasher, washer and dryer which is a bummer. Luckily I had done all of the laundry before we went to bed last night. Plus our hot water tank is gas so we have hot water too. I am REALLY hoping that this doesn't turn into another 2015 situation. Reilly and Hunter had their power go off for a few hours but it is back on now. They live in a different part of town than we do. Reilly also stayed home from work today. Thank goodness.

The House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump today for the second time. There is so much hatred and rage on both sides of the aisle. It's revolting. We ordered Jimmy John's for dinner and watched multiple old episodes of Duck Dynasty and The Goldbergs. Fingers crossed that our power will be back on when we wake up in the morning.

Day 307: 1-14-21 (Thursday)

The power is not back on. The power company texted out this morning that power will most likely not be back on until SUNDAY!! Are you KIDDING me??!! Who wants to move to Spokane?? Anyone? Anyone? Thank goodness...once again...for our generator and the lessons learned in 2015.

Today Tyler replaced all of our propane tanks with fresh ones. Our generator can run for a little over 8 hours on one propane tank. It can also run on gasoline so Tyler filled up some gas cans too. We are blessed to have had zero property damage and that we were unhurt. So many people aren't that lucky.

Check out this poor house on our walking route:

That makes me sick to my stomach.

Midtown Market had a tree come down on it and do some damage to the roof and crushed a cargo trailer that the owners, our friends Megan and Matt, had in the back. That part of CDA got hit pretty bad. The store is closed for the next few days. One of my co-vendors had a tree go right through her home in CDA and trap her baby in her crib. Luckily the baby was uninjured. That is terrifying! One of the people that was killed was a good friend to several of my friends. She had a tree come down on her car while she was driving to work. It is heartbreaking. Also, this was witnessed by several of the seminary students who were driving to seminary the morning of the windstorm because for some insane reason Seminary wasn't cancelled. (We kept Ailey home). Anyway... those kids were pretty traumatized having witnessed that. Several of them were first on the scene. There are damaged houses and cars all over the place...not nearly as bad as 2015 which looked like a war zone...but still bad.

We drove out to the lake to see if there was any damage out there and also to see if the power was on because if so... we're moving in! Luckily it also happens to be my week at the lake. Unfortunately for us, the power was out there too but there wasn't any damage so that was good! It was nice to get out of our house for awhile.

We played outside at the lake and were quite entertained. It did us all some good. We picked up Chinese take-out on our way home. We hooked up our microwave and made mug cakes and watched The Goonies! Bryn liked it. Ailey was underwhelmed. Ha ha.

Day 308: 1-15-21 (Friday)

We woke up to no power once again. The girls technically had school today. The school district declared today a school day which was absolutely RIDICULOUS! So many people still don't have power and the people that do have power don't have internet service. So... how are kids supposed to do online school?? It was a total joke. We did get a text from the power company saying that the estimated time for power to be restored was now today at 1:30 pm which is a HECK of a lot better than Sunday!!

Tyler got a hair cut. His first in MONTHS! Hallelujah! We watched Avista crews working in our area. We watched the time of 1:30 pm roll around and still no power. Tyler and I went on a big walk and were sadden to see so much damage. By 4:30 pm we still didn't have power and it was starting to get dark. I needed to go to CDA for vendor night. Midtown Market was open for business today. Vendor night was changed to tonight since the store has been closed due to tree damage. We left Ailey and Bryn with instructions about the generator and hoped for the best. We got an absolutely marvelous phone call at a little after 5pm. The power was back on!! 2 days and 11 hours without power wasn't fun but we were much more prepared than in 2015 and that was really nice.

We came home to a warm and fully lit home. Glorious!! We brought the girls Crumbl cookies to celebrate. Tyler and I finished this season of The Crown. So good and so sad.

Day 309: 1-16-21 (Saturday)

Today we organized our garage and all of our "survival" items: Generator and supplies. Tyler got all of the propane tanks refilled for the next time. We went for our walk and it was really nice. We headed to the lake once again to see if the power was back on. It was. While we were outside messing around on the ice we heard someone playing the bagpipes. It was really beautiful. The bagpiper played several of the songs that were played by the bagpiper at my mom's memorial service. After that we ran our usual Saturday errands and headed home to relax. It was a great night at home!

Day 310: 1-17-20 (Sunday)

The girls and I went to church in person today and Tyler watched the livestream. It felt great to be back and to see so many friends! Bryn finally got to stay for 2nd hour (it was Sunday School) since she is now out of Primary and is with the older kids. She loved it! It was weird coming home by myself. Tyler went to pick up the girls after 2nd hour and I got a text that they were setting Bryn and her presidency apart. Tyler was almost home and had to turn around. I was about to attend my online RS class. My friend Shannon was teaching. Tyler ended up going in and helping set Bryn apart. He wasn't in his church clothes but at least he was in clean jeans and a sweater and not ratty joggers and an old t-shirt! LOL. He got to socialize and visit with some of his friends a bit. It did all of us a world of good to see good friends and to socialize today. I also had THREE great chatty phone calls with good friends today which is always fun! The girls don't have school tomorrow and Tyler is off of work too for MLK Day.

My friend Rachel is still without power. They are telling her it should be back on tomorrow. Her thermostat is at 42 degrees inside. It is awful. She and her family are staying with her sister-in-law.

We had our Come Follow Me lesson and it was REALLY good! It was an extremely nice Sabbath day!