Brrrrrr It's Nice to be Back

[pastor_bob]

We had an ice storm/snow storm Sunday night. We only got about 5" of snow, but there was a solid sheet of ice underneath the snow. To make matters worse, we've have enough icy/snowy days already, that the county was out of salt for the roads. The dog woke me with her barking in the middle of the night, and I could see flashing lights outside. It was a tractor/trailer that had tried to come up the hill I'm on, and right in front of the house, his tires lost traction. He sat on the highway in front of the house for 2 hours with his emergency flashers on (he did finally back down the hill to a more level spot, and I'm sure he put chains on. He was for quite a while, but he was gone in the morning).

When I woke up, I could feel that it was colder than normal in the house, and when I tried to turn on a light, I found out that the power had gone out. I weathered it the first night and day, but the cold just kept getting worse, and I couldn't get out on the road to go get anything I needed, neither could anyone navigate my hill to get anything to me. I also had no internet, my cellphone go low fast, and it was dead silent around here.

The good news is that after a day of thermals under my normal clothes, plus 2 additional layers on top of that, gloves, scarf, and knit cap that covered my ears, plus staying in bed with 2 quilts, and 2 extra blankets, I finally got relief tonight. I saw the bathroom light come on to signal the power had returned, and then I heard the heater kick on. You can't even imagine what a great sound that was.

I now have a more profound empathy for the people that find themselves homeless, and looking for any place they can find to keep warm. My church houses the homeless during the winter months, and now I fully understand how incredibly important that kindness is to someone who's cold.

It's nice to be warm again, and able to hang out with you guys again.

[drummer]

Great to have you back PB. Thank you for helping the homeless.

[Drumbledore]

PB, as always, you know how to spin a story with a message. Thanks for sharing. And welcome back.

[rickthedrummer]

Blondes and scotch work in times of great stress.

I have the research to back it up.

[late8]

Bob, I'm certainly glad you were able to keep warm and safe under those conditions. We've been reading about the terrible weather the east coast has been going through lately as we sit here in California in the worst drought in 100 years.

I walk by a homeless man who sleeps in a doorway of a church every morning as I make my way to the state capitol where I work. As we exchange "Good Mornings", he nods and smiles and never asks for a hand out. His smile lights up the entire morning for me. I can't even fathom what it would be like to sleep out on the streets in the cold.

I'm glad you're back with heat and lights and hope the rest of our members are safe and sound.

[Markadiddle]

I'm happy to hear you "weathered the storm" Bob. I've experienced the same thing several times when I lived back East. It's never fun. Fortunately, the one house I lived in had a fire place. I was able to plug in a gas powered generator I had, light a fire and plug in a fan to the genny to keep the heat circulating throughout the house. Somehow, we managed to keep the temp right around 62 degrees. Not warm by any stretch of the imagination, but better than below 0 outside! We were without power for 3 days. I even had my next door neighbors(whom I was really good friends with) camp out in the spare bedroom that I had for a couple days.

I couldn't even imagine being homeless and being in MN. during the winter months. It's not as visible back there as it here in CA. Ever since moving here, I have become much more aware of the problem and I always throw a couple bucks to people as I'm driving by. I always hope they use it to get food and not booze.

At any rate, I'm glad to hear you're OK. Glad you're back!