The Storm; Part Two

 thursday

This morning was much easier than yesterday—in terms of the generator. All the extension cords remained in place, so all I had to do was fill up the generator and turn it on. And it worked, thank God. There’s still no Hydro crew on the island Steve and Bruce keep my abreast of the status of our outage by visiting the Hydro website and then calling me on my land line. Oh, how I long for them to get here and for this outage to end! The entire island is without power. That’s 4,000 people.

The rough aspect of getting going this morning was Fred knocking his food dish on the floor and food and broken ceramic was everywhere. And me with no vacuum (it draws too much power to use while I am powering up the fridge). Sweeping in the dark, and I didn’t dare give them the spilt food for fear of there being splinters of ceramic in it, so now I am out of cat food. But Pete and Ali are coming by at 10:30 so that I can drive them to the ferry. On the way home, I’ll buy some water and the cat food. That’ll reduce the sense of chaos in the house. I can give the pets fresh water and boil eggs, pasta and veggies. Plus, one way or another, I will do dishes.

There’s no wind now, and it’s not raining this morning, so I got to do some yard work done. Dave saw me working and arrived with his rake and together we cleaned up my driveway and courtyard. Every little correction helps me feel better. And Steve called from LA. Bruce is visiting him, and Bruce is used to checking the Hydro website for me, and they called early this morning to tell me that a Hydro crew was due at 9:00 am. Help is on the way.

I’m very insecure about the generator. It is acting strangely, so I won’t keep it on all day. Once the fridge is good and cold, I’ll give the generator a break and then start it up again later. 

Ali and Peter arrived at 10:30, and I drove them to the ferry terminal, and on the way home I got more gas for the generator, cat treats and a giant keg of water. Progress! Once home, we all ate and then I did yard work for a couple of hours, very slowly but I did manage to clear half of the front lawn and schlep all the detritus to a pile on the driveway.

Once I was too pooped to continue, I had a spa. The water was warm on the surface and cold in the bottom, but it felt good to be able to splash my whole body with reasonably warm water. I felt clean, and that felt good. I haven’t had a shower since Tuesday.

When I started up the generator for my evening watching DVDs, it would not work, so I spent my night in bed, reading and then sleeping for a long, long time. I took an Atavan. My incredible stress warranted it.

friday

Friday began slowly. I fed the pets, lit the fire and went back to bed. It’s not bright enough to read until 9:00, so the morning passed very slowly. At 8:45, unable to wait until 9:00, I called Doug Robertson the awesome mobile engine service provider. I told him about the blue smoke and my suspicions were confirmed: I’d put in too much oil.

He added me to his list of jobs (I’m seventh in line), but an idea came to mind as I was walking Her Highness in the forest. So, when we got home, I got my turkey baster out of the house and used it to siphon off quite a bit of oil. And then I started the generator and, miracle of miracles, it worked again. But not for long. It stopped running and so I tried getting it going again a few more times to no avail. I was disappointed to know that I faced another day or more without power. Times goes frightfully slowly.

So, I settled in to read and suddenly, there was Doug. He removed more oil and now my generator seems to be working well again. I’m incredibly happy that it seems to be fixed because that means my food won’t spoil and that I can watch DVDs tonight. Doug mentioned that he’d been to the gas station and the pumps aren’t working, so now that the generator is going, I may not have enough gas to keep it working until we get power.

It was clear by 11:00, that the generator is dependable. Its sound is giving me confidence. It is running smoothly, there are no variances in speed, no backfires, no sputtering. It’s brought me relief to hear its steady sound. My food won’t spoil. We may not have power until Sunday, so a working generator is vital. But the big plus, will be watching movies tonight. I just love chilling with a good movie and a big fire.

At 1:00 pm, the generator went out. It shakes so badly that this very heavy machine had moved sideways into the table in my shed. It makes crazy noises as well, so I called Doug and he will come to check it out, but he fears my generator is fucked and that I will have to get a new one. But will I do that? I’m not sure because depending on what I hear from the doctors about my strength and breathing, I may want to move.

Right now, one of the little houses in a compound of small houses close to the village is for sale. I’d like to move there. It may be time to call a realtor so that I can nab the next one that comes up for sale.

Thankfully, my battery charged lightbulbs got me through the evening. I read all night and then went to bed, worried about how today would be for me. I faced having to throw out a lot of food and spending another day of stress and poor mental health. I was very, very glad to go to bed and escape this chaos of Pinecone Park.

At 5:00 am Saturday morning, I was awakened by emergency vehicles going past my house. Their flashing lights caused me to open my eyes. I felt good seeing that vehicle, because I knew that the authorities knew about the tree across our street, and I had hopes that maybe they’d be working in my area today.

Then, at 5:30, boom! The lights came on and so I quickly got out of bed and got to work vacuuming, coiling all the extension cords, and bringing order back into our home. Oh joy, oh joy. Back to email, back to Facetiming friends, back to showering and flushing toilets, and back to easy cooking and my streaming services. Now my sense of self and happiness will return.