Power!

Last night, it dumped ice rain. This morning we woke up to a shiny wonderland of crunchy grass and ice-coated trees touching their tips to the ground. Of course, what woke us was the truly astonishing cold in the schoolhouse. The power and the fire had both gone out overnight, and around 6am, both of us were wide awake, re-starting the fire … in the dark. We crunched over to the main house, and my dad greeted us with hot coffee. He had boiled water on the wood stove and fashioned a makeshift drip filter using a colander.

He said that he was really glad to see us … he had been entertaining the thought that the footsteps approaching were neighbors with more food. Don’t get me wrong, the food is awesome and we’re grateful for it … but we’re all feeling a little portly. Plus, the thought that they might say the following devolved us into mad giggling: “Hey, we just thought … you might be lonely over here … so we cleaned out the peacock shed and put a cot in there for you! Just like home!”

Yes, the neighbors keep peacocks. It’s pretty surreal around here, even on a normal day.

We started off by hopping in the hot tub (no need to let the hot water go to waste!) After that, I declared a snow day: Free from all responsibilities. We drove in to Charlottesville to hang out at UVA and commune with Mr. Jefferson. “Truly I weep for my nation when I reflect that God is just.” Got some lunch, and then shopped for various things. We blew an amazing amount of money at Whole Foods, mostly spices and bulk stuff to stock the kitchen with meals I know how to make. We shopped till we dropped, including:

* Candles
* A high speed broadband card for my dad (through “Alltel”, whose tower we can *see* from the house).
* Other noise.

We got home aaaaaaanad the power was still out. My friend Dan had sent a Fedex box with all the mail from the past week, plus my running shoes. Wow, we get a lot of mail. I chopped more wood and we built two big fires. We used the wood stove to heat the salmon and green beans from Whole Foods. All in all, a candle-lit dinner for Valentine’s day. Set aside the fact that I was wearing long underwear and two sweaters to defend against the cold. It was *great*!

Just as my dad picked up the phone to call the power company and ask for an update, the pumps and heaters came to life!

So now, we’re merrily using the internet and charging the batteries on the laptops. My dad is occasionally emitting whoops of joy as he uses the “Swiffer” bucket-free mop with battery powered cleaning action.