Monday, January 22, 2007

Gabriel at Five



Wednesday of this week is a special day. It's the day our grandson will celebrate his 5th birthday. Words can't begin to express how much joy and laughter Gabriel has brought to our lives. I just had to put together this little montage... I call it the "metamorphosis of Gabe". The first photo is of him at 6 days old... and then one each year till now. So here's to you Gabriel. May all your years be happy ones! And always remember your papa and gramma love you forever!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

The Adventure of "Candle Days"

Couldn't let too much time go by without reflecting on how this past weekend, while not something we'd have wished for, was also a sort of "urban adventure". The whole scenario, reading by candle light, cooking on the outdoor grill in January, and warming our home via fireplace was both surreal and a bit reassuring. It was neat to discover we didn't have to be run out of our home just because our ready access to the almighty kilowatt was cut off. I found myself thinking about people in lots of places worldwide for whom electricity is not a regular option. And then I felt blest. Blest to have a resourceful spouse, blest to have a house with a fireplace, blest to have good friends to share the candlelight with, and blest to have time to share a bottle of wine and good conversations with those friends and spouse instead of the usual round of television or videos with which we generally insulate ourselves. (Even blest not to have a computer that I could "connect to the world" with for a few days.) Interesting. Might it be a good idea to stage my own "imaginary ice storm" every now and then when life gets too frantic and unkind? Hmmmm? Definitely worth thinking about... I know I look younger in candlelight! :-)

Monday, January 15, 2007

Winter at its fiercest! Good-bye trees! :-(




Well, dear readers, it's been a pretty wild and wooly weekend here in ole' St.Chuck. Friday evening a wicked winter storm hit us; not with snow, but with ICE! LOTS of Ice!! Then beginning at about 3am Saturday morning the sounds of trees breaking and crashing became common. First the snap, almost like a gunshot. Then as you held your breath, the thump on the rooftops of tree limbs falling. Our poor maple in the backyard lost many branches from its center. Fortunately, no damage was done to the roof or the pool. The oak and the sycamore surprised us by dropping hardly a branch.

All over town, branches came down, taking power lines and electricity with them. By 6am Saturday we had no power... and neither did over 100,000 fellow St. Charlesians! So we lit our ventless gas fireplace, dug out all our flashlights, oil lamps, and candles and hunkered down to wait for power to return. With the fireplace, we were able to keep the house in the 60's... but not all our neighbors were able to do so.

We greeted Sunday morning with the loss of our favorite Bradford Pear tree which snapped due to the load on its poor branches. The photos here are minus a full pickup truck load of logs that Gret and Leon will use for firewood once it seasons. With their help, we were able to clean up all of what you see here.

Good news arrived about 1 on Sunday afternoon when our lights came back on! Then, when their house reached the low 50's on Sunday afternoon, our best friends the Gaunts, who had no power until Monday afternoon, moved in for an 24 hr. stay. So we had fun playing with their grandkids Victor and Gwen which successfully took all our minds off the weather outside.

Presently it's late Monday afternoon and the temps are plunging into the upper teens. The wind is supposed to pick up tonight, but since much of the ice melted away late yesterday, we should be okay. Our only worry is if any previously weakened lines fall down. We are praying that doesn't happen. St. Charles County is slated to be back to full operations by Wednesday night.

We'll miss our pretty pear tree seen here just behind the pink crabapple last spring.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Hidden in Plain Sight!



Chas has a new "favorite activity" that's become apparent over the holiday break. He goes into the guest room, jumps on the bed, shuffles all the pillows and stuffed animals around... and makes a hiding place for himself. Then he goes to sleep there. We've come home and been unable to locate him and then gone into the guest room and there's our "guest". It's a bit like he's thinking, "Well, they aren't using this bed, so I might as well; and if I'm really tricky... maybe they won't notice me!" Goofy Mutt!
Happy New Year, everyone!