At Home in the Dark

The candle light is not enough. LEDs and book lights help pierce the darkness. It takes a while, but you get good at aiming the light to the paragraph you’re on. Get’s dark early this time of year. The one part of this electrical loss that is hard to deal

with is the loss of heating. Our hot water works, and we’ve had showers and hot baths, but the water, as hot as it might be, won’t circulate in the pipes and radiators. The pump is electric and living with this cold is difficult. The temperature outside is dropping to the forty’s. Bearable during the day, but hard to take at night. We were using lots of blankets until the electricity returned late last night.

I went downstairs. Bicycling in the dark. I wish my pedaling were hooked up to the heat pump. I would have warmed the whole house, not just myself.

Bicycling in the darkness

Advertisement

Life in the Backyard

I filled and replaced the bird feeder yesterday. There’s been quite a crowd showing up. Three blue jays are leading the throng. The only one they can’t threaten is the large red-headed woodpecker that periodically stops by. It’s wild, sometimes a frenzy. I’m impressed how fast the news travels and at all the birds that show up to party.

We are thankful that few branches and no trees came down in our backyard or by the house. This past year we had the tree trimmers out several times, and after last year’s early snow fall that damaged many limbs. These trees seem sturdy, considering the ones we’ve seen uprooted  around town.

Tree limbs down on a corner house – Main Street, Monsey, NY

Clearing the path

Several trees on the edge of the parking area for Edison Court came down on the path to Crestview. Yesterday they were cleared. We can’t have the path to Shul blocked for too long.

This was the first, fast clean up that was close to home. The trees down at the end of Solond, by the From’s home, were still down across the road. The end of the block, on the edge of the school playground, had several trees down, waiting to be cleared. As we made trips out to Purple Pear and ShopRite and Suffern Library, we found blocked roads near Montebello Road and Spook Rock, forcing us to come home by Highview. Clean up continues. Thank G-d that’s all it is so far.