Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2007!
We lost power on Christmas evening, and it was out until Friday. You can guess what I’m grateful for!!
Last year at this time it happened on New Year’s Eve, around 8 o’clock. This year it was Christmas. Now everyone’s starting to wonder if it’s a pattern we can expect to continue? Both times we’ve had hurricane force winds – with some clocked as high as 85 mph this year!
So, I’m very grateful for the “basic” amenities that we all have come to appreciate. They are so basic that we often take them for granted – electricity, heat, water, telephones, transportation, well-stocked grocery stores (and pantries) and especially radio (communication).
I’m also grateful that we had to replace the pressure tanks on our wells earlier this year. At that time I was exceedingly grateful to my neighbors who let us hook up to their water for the 3 weeks or so it took to get everything fixed. What I noticed this time is that the water stayed available for about 2 full days instead of just the hour or two I’ve come to expect over the last several outages.
We were very lucky there was minimal damage to the trees around here – even though PG&E said there was extensive damage to their lines (5 days after all!). We did have a tree go down on the street and for about 6 hours no one was able to get out because of the way it was blocking everything. However, we are luckier than some of the outlying areas that had to wait even longer than we did for power.
PG&E brought in crews from as far away as Washington State as well as all over California. Isn’t it amazing how well organized they are! It always amazes me how willing they are to work at all hours to get everything back to “normal”.
Our local radio station, KHUM, did an outstanding job of keeping everyone informed. They are one of the few truly local stations and did a fabulous job during last year’s storm, and this year everyone knew it was exactly the place to get the full story on what was known.
Last night ended up being a quiet night, although we did stay up until after midnight. As for me, I just found out about Turner Classic Movies special Science Fiction day with classic 1950′s SciFi movies all day long! If I wanted to be a couch potato, this would be the day!!
What are the “little things” that you are grateful for? Today’s a wonderful day to count your blessings and start your year in an “attitude of gratitude”.