how i'm doing

well, i have now had two whole days with uninterrupted power, so i can stop waiting for the other shoe to drop.

when you don't have power is only slightly more stressful than when you do have power, but you know you're going to lose it very soon, maybe for days.

and it manifests other ways.

you don't start projects that need electricity. once last week i started cooking dinner in the oven and finished in the fireplace.

you also think about taking a shower, and you keep a jug hand just in case.

and you don't change the sheets on the bed, in case you lose power too close to bedtime AGAIN and need to go to bed a little grubby.

yesterday the sun was out for the first time since well before the storm, and the neighborhood children went screaming around outside as soon as it came up.

for christmas eve we're going to get sleet, freezing rain, and rain. and flooding.

and for some of us, that will mean darkness.

again.

yay.

today is the shortest day of the year, and i'll make some hand pies and some loaves of good bread, and i will be happy that the days will be getting longer. we have done it, my friends. we have gotten through the darkest.

it will be slow, but bit bit bit the light grows.

and so may it with you.