Skipping Town

The morning was a little chaotic because the cleaners were coming in the afternoon and Greta and I had to get Nutmeg upstairs to the attic. Our method is to get her into her crate and then carry the crate upstairs; both of us are too scared to try to just carry her upstairs, since she could easily wriggle free and get hurt. Of course, picking up Nutmeg is always an adventure. Greta is excellent at scooping her up--unless Nutmeg figures out what's happening. Then she runs under various pieces of furniture and makes herself impossible to find. But Greta eventually prevailed. I worked from home again, which meant I spent the day with both pets running around the attic and hanging out in my office. I love that. After school, Greta went to crew. Lucia came home after school then went for a run by herself, ending at Ebisu, where she picked up her favorite snack, a bottle of peach soda and a package of Pocky. I made chicken paprikash for dinner and everyone ate it, even enjoyed it, which ...

I worked from home today with all the power and wifi. Bliss. There was a good bit of running around in the afternoon: Lucia forgot her sneakers so I had to bring those to her after school; then I picked her up after she ran with the track team; then I picked Greta up after crew.  Contrary to our usual no-TV-during-the-week rhythm, the girls and I watched two episodes of Lost while we ate dinner. (Andrew's not here, so there was no one to stop us.) I was annoyed that an entire episode was devoted to still more people we'd never seen before--it's much, much too late in the series for new characters, even for the purpose of explaining...something. Do we understand the importance of this episode's revelations? What were the revelations, exactly? Was this an extended Cain and Abel metaphor, or good vs. evil, or something else? It's literally impossible to know, or, frankly, to care. Forget these new characters. Get us back to Sayid, Jack, Sawyer, Hugo, and Kate! Get us b...

We enjoyed a full day of having power. We made coffee and breakfast, went grocery shopping, and put things into a cold refrigerator. Mom and Dad came over in the afternoon so Dad could provide some math assistance for both kids, and then we all headed out to the girls' spring piano recital. They each played two songs plus a duet and did beautifully. Afterward, we went out for dinner at Pastoli's. Andrew left from there in an Uber to the airport for his trip to Spain. After Mom and Dad left, the kids and I watched two episodes of Lost. We have only three episodes left of the final season. I have a lot of thoughts PLUS I bought an entire book of essays published in honor of the twentieth anniversary to augment those thoughts. I can't wait to make talking about Lost my entire personality. 

We were hopeful about the power today, since the Duquene Light trucks were on our street for much of the day. But we still had to spend most of the day power-less. Andrew and Lucia went for a run in the morning and stopped at Five Points to get cardamom buns to bring home. We made coffee.  The kids spent most of the day coloring in their Coco Wye "Girl Moments" coloring books, having hurtled back to a time without wi-fi and electricity. "It's just like New Hampshire," Lucia said happily, which isn't accurate at all since we have both wi-fi and electricity in NH, and if we lost electricity we'd have to leave since it would be absolutely terrifying to be there. But I understood what she was saying: it felt like an excuse to just do fun analog things and pretend the outside world didn't exist.  We had bagels for lunch. Andrew and I worked on switching our winter clothes from our closet to the bureaus, and putting our summer clothes in our closet, while ...

Still no power. I was particularly resentful about this today, since I had to go into the office for a full day instead of working from home, which I always do on Friday. Andrew went into work too, but of course he had to leave early because he had our only car and had to pick up Greta at three. Lucia went to a friend's house for a couple of hours. When we were all back home, we decided to go out to dinner at Mad Mex, which was fun. Then we bought some ice at the grocery store to put into our cooler, as well as some half and half, cream cheese, and butter so we could at least manage breakfast.  Back home, we turned on the generator for a bit then returned to darkness. 

We still have no power. However, the generator guy did come to the house today and got the generator up and running. It's not a perfect fix--it can't be run constantly, and has to be turned off and on outside--but it's helpful. Occasional power is a step up from no power. It was too late to be helpful at all to our food, however, and tonight Andrew and I had to pitch everything in the fridge and freezer. We haven't yet gotten to the basement freezer. It was an awful feeling to throw away what had been perfectly good food, but it had to be done. A kind neighbor brought over dinner for us tonight, and then we went to school for Greta's seventh-grade poetry slam. We turned the generator on for a little while so we could get ready for bed with some lights on. The kids seem to be enjoying (to some extent) the campout feeling of living with flashlights and lanterns; both have taken to coloring in their rooms, with only a lantern lighting their work.  There is still no est...