Here we go again… another forty-eight hours without power. We are no strangers to power outages here in Maine. Without a doubt and with no exaggeration, the power goes out here at least once a week. I know this for a fact because I’m the one who resets the blinking clock over the stove on a weekly basis. This is how the story goes. For a few days, they had been calling for a pretty decent amount of snowfall. We were thinking how can this be possible? The weather has been gorgeous and we thought spring was finally in motion. My spring migratory birds have been establishing their territories, and for the most part, all of the snow has melted on the property. We thought we were in the clear. So we thought. The Thursday morning before Easter Sunday, The Weather Channel had posted a weather warning for our area. We gathered containers for drinking water and pails of water for washing dishes and flushing the toilets. As you know, when the power goes out, things can get messy very quickly. We are experts at this point. We were set for food, there was gas for the generator, and both of the wood-burning stoves were burning.
By the early afternoon, we received a fairly good amount of rain and wind. By late afternoon, the snow started to fall. This wasn’t a light and pretty snow by any means. It was wet and heavy and began to stick to the trees immediately. It wasn’t looking good and we knew we were in for it. It was just a matter of time before the power went out. Several trees and branches would no doubt be falling onto the wires and the roads very soon. I figured I would get outside and sort of document the timeline of the situation on the property. I will call these photographs the before the storm shots.
As time went on, the lights began to flicker. Just before 6 pm, the power went out for the evening. We knew the drill and could only hope our power would be restored sometime the next day. No such luck. We got out of bed later than usual, because there was no need to rush. I got the coffee started on our handy gas burner for camping trips. With nothing else to do, I decided to go outside and take a few more photographs. The snow continued on and off for the rest of the day, but it was nothing compared to the hours of snow we received before. Many of the birches had bent under the weight of the heavy snow, but have since recovered. These are the aftershots of our big April snowstorm. I also took several photographs of the birds and I will share those in another post.
By the way, the power didn’t come back on that Friday. That would mean another evening in the dark. Before it got too dark and with nothing else to do later in the afternoon, I wanted to tackle finishing the book I had been reading. I have been a fan of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and I wanted to start reading one of her other book series called The Lives of the Mayfair Witches. I have been reading The Witching Hour for a while now and I wanted to take these quiet hours to finish my book. Well, my mission was accomplished and I moved on to one of her companion books called Haunted City: An Unauthorized Guide to the Magical, Magnificent New Orleans of Anne Rice. If you know anything about Anne Rice, she has spent many years in the city of New Orleans. She simply adores this city and it has served as a backdrop for many of her books. I have always considered this beautiful city to be one of her beloved characters as well. I suppose I was thankful for the time to get some reading time in. I can now move on to the second book in the Mayfair series called Lasher and the ninth book in the Vampire Chronicles called Blackwood Farm.
If you are interested in this sort of genre, Rice’s books bring readers to a myriad of periods of time as well as on many adventures. The character development in her stories is incredible. I enjoy several of the characters, such as Pandora, Claudia, and Armand, just to name a few.
On Saturday, we woke up to no power once again. Being that our livelihood mostly depends on the internet, we needed to go find WiFi. We may be one of the last people on the planet without smartphones, so we ended up sitting in the car outside of our local Dunkin’ Donuts with our tablets. A perfect place for free WiFi. After getting some work done, we went back home. We were hoping the power would be turned back on by the time we got home. No such luck. Being that we had some light to work with, I started reading a new book I picked up at our local used bookstore a few months ago from Twice Sold Tales. Anyone who knows me well knows how much I enjoy the music of Sting. So naturally, I like to read about him, too. I have read several books about him already and I was happy to find Sting: Demolition Man by Christopher Sandford. I don’t want to give all of the goodies away on the book, but I am seeing Sting in a whole new light. The good, the bad, and the ugly, I suppose.
Finally, right before 6 pm, the power came back on. This was a good thing because Central Maine Power, Co. had predicted a much longer wait. Being that Easter Sunday was the next day, I’m glad we wouldn’t be spending yet another holiday without power. We didn’t have anything planned anyway. With the current situation, we didn’t want to have a menu planned and not be able to get all of the necessary ingredients for a nice dinner. We didn’t get a chance to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day either. Last month when the world changed, food was more of a priority than Guinness at the grocery store. Although, I do believe Guinness has some medicinal benefits! I wanted to color eggs, too, but, we only had brown ones. I suppose beggars can’t be choosers these days. I hope next year will be a better one and we will be able to get back to our usual routine for the holidays. Since then, on the bright side, our dandelions have bloomed and are quite beautiful. I suppose our spring snow showers have benefited some parts of the natural world, just beautifully. Just as much as the spring rain showers do after all.
I dedicate this post to one of my pals, Grayson, who enjoys the winter season and all of its beauty as much as I do. Technically, it isn’t winter anymore, but you sure wouldn’t know it, living here in Maine.
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