miko2

I had fun driving home Thursday night. The storm really hadn't hit full force yet, but already there were some streets obviously without power. I stopped at Top Foods to get some cheese, crackers, and dip for a potluck party on Friday, and then discovered that Lea Hill Road, the twisty uphill road to my house, was closed due to falling trees.

So, driving in the wind and rain and dark down roads I'd either been down only once before or never at all, I turned left and followed a lot of other cars down along Green River until I could turn right, then drove until I could turn right again, then drove until we hit an intersection that I correctly determined was the upper section of the road I drive on to go up the hill to my house. And I knew this for certain because... it was closed down from this end too.

So I turned left again and drove further off the map. I was still following the same car I'd been following the whole time. We got to a large intersection where I turned right, and then at the next fairly large road the car in front took another right so I did too. I was pretty sure I was at the top of the hill now and heading towards my house from the opposite direction I normally come, and that I could find the road past my apartments from this end. The car I was following took another right, and I decided to go straight based on my hunch of which direction I was going. For a second I thought I'd driven into a dead end, and then I happily realized that what was in front of me was almost certainly the back side of the little wooded park I like to take walks in. Bingo!

After that it was just a matter of driving down a road carpeted with broken branches from those trees, driving around all of the large ones, and then down the road to my apartment, where for the first time in months there was plenty of parking waiting for me at night.

At that point I still had power but I could tell it had been out for about four hours that day. I soon realized that, as the wind picked up, it would flicker and the computer would turn off, and the television would turn off. I watched the final episode of Eden's Bowy and then sat on the couch and wrapped presents, and read. (I'd cleaned off the coffee table Thursday morning and placed all of my gifts and my wrapping paper there within easy reach, so that if I were to come home and flop down on the couch I'd still have no excuse not to get some wrapping done).

At midnight the power went out. I lit some candles, got my flashlight, and decided that it was a perfect time to take a hot bath, in case I couldn't do that later. I went to bed early since it was so dark in the apartment, and I wanted to be certain of getting up on time the next day.

Before going to bed I looked out my window and saw, in the dim dark, a larger section of darkness at a 45 degree angle. It looked like a tree. I got dressed, grabbed my flashlight, and went outside. Yep, there was an evergreen tree leaning against the building. It wasn't a huge tree, maybe 40 feet or so tall, and it hadn't done any damage that I could see, but it was pretty spectacular seeing it there leaning against the building. I got a better look at it the next day, and talked to the maintinence guy who was out and about saying hello to people and talking about how he was going to deal with the tree. I'd never even talked to him before, and I realized that this was kind of like his personal superbowl, his big moment to shine.

Friday my power was still out, but most of Auburn seemed okay. I saw other downed trees... there was one that had fallen across 105th (the road I live on) that had been cut up and moved, and as many as two or three that had been cut up and moved from Lea Hill Road. I stopped at Office Depot to get some more scotch tape for gift wrapping, but their lights were all out. Their front door was open and it was like looking into a pitch black cavern. But everywhere else in the area had power, so I went next door to Rite Aid and found what I wanted.

I didn't notice any undue traffic but not long after that peole were reporting gridlock in downtown Auburn. Our main office had a Christmas party with lots of food, and people couldn't even drive over because of the massive traffic. Apparently a lot of nearby towns were completely without power, and so our stores and gas stations were attracting people like picnics attract ants.

I got gas on my way home, and I had to wait in line 10 minutes to do it. When I got home, everything was still dark. I went through the fridge and freezer and threw some things out, then I decided to go back to Fred Meyers and get some things... a few extra candles, check. Logs for a fire... um, nope, they were cleaned out. Another flashlight, or D batteries for my current flashlight... yeah, right. All cleaned out. Something to eat that didn't require cooking? Their shelves had been ravaged but there was still stuff to choose from. I picked up a six-pack of lipton tea (unsweetened) and a small beef log.

I went by work again and posted a brief message to LJ, and printed out the writing advice

miertam had given me, grabbed a small radio with headset and gave my coworkers and update. Then I went back home. I tried to stop at Lowe's but they were closed, then I went back to Rite Aid and they had no batteries... or firewood... they had a few flashlights left that required you to plug them in to charge them up first, and one that required batteries that they no longer had any of. Big help. I got a small cheap battery-powered radio (one that I didn't need to wear headphones to listen to) and went home.

As it turned out, I really had saved my most current version of my Christmas story to my laptop, so I was able to sit on the couch and work on my story, in the dark. I was still doing that when the power came back on.

All in all, I was without power for not quite 24 hours. My phone message machine ran out of battery power and has forgotten my phone message and the three messages that I had for whatever reason not deleted yet. There's still a tree leaning against my building. I didn't have internet access until late this morning, so this post is one of the first things I did when I noticed it was up. Lots of other places are still without power, and my coworkers had some stories to tell that were much worse than mine, about driving home much later than I did in the middle of the storm, with trees blocking the roads... a couple of them with 4wd vehicles actually drove over a tree or two... and drove under trees or power lines that were threatening to come all the way down, or were being temporarily held up by something. Many of them had BIG trees come down near their house. At least one had a tree come down ON his house, and he stayed home from work to deal with it.

Many of my coworkers forgot about our potluck or weren't able to get anything on Friday afternoon due to stores being either closed or packed with panicking powerless shoppers. But the company supplied a lot of food, and Sandy brought a huge crock pot of spaghetti stuff (she used macaroni, so it was more like chilimac or something, but very good). I set out my cheeses and crackers and Jim had some more crackers and cheese spread in his desk that he hadn't opened yet, and we did just fine.

I just got a call from Keith asking if I had power... he had to ask because he doesn't have power still. We talked a bit and he asked if Pandora House has power, and I realized that I don't really know for sure, so he was going to call them next.

Oh, and the important part... the last two gifts I was waiting for arrived on Thursday and Friday! I've got more giftwrapping to do, but otherwise I think i'm all set!