A few weeks earlier, we had rain that set a record for the month of November. Where land did not drain well, the roots of the tall pine trees became set in very soggy soil.

During the November rains there were a couple of days that it snowed. The photo of our house, below - left, was taken then. We have six of those beautiful trees. They are all well rooted in clay soil and in good health. Trees like this fair very well in high winds. Bryan's property is larger with several large trees. One is very very large. The tree forester has inspected them and advised that they are all well also.

On that night Dec. 14, 2006; the power went out at about 10:00 p.m. but came back on. Then at mid-night it went out for 23 hours. The first thing was to cut all power to the computer system :) Then we found both flash lights, then the candles. Then we lit our two old fashioned Oil lamps. They give off a lot of light. You can read by them and almost put a puzzle together by straining a little. We could not sleep with that howling wind. It reminded us of the cold blizzards we had back in Michigan. One time Letha got up and coming back to bed, no light in hand, she missed the bed, going to floor and hit her head on the end table, even broke blood. She is OK today.

Early in the morning it was getting cold so I ventured out back and located our wood supply, not too big. Our wood stove is like that shown at right. Letha had it covered with snowman collection and she moved them over by the Christmas tree.

Putting some crumpled paper on the bottom, then small slivers of wood. I placed about 4 small logs. I always cover these items with oil from out oil lamps. It starts right up. We warmed some milk for a big cup of cocoa.

When our lights went out, I looked across the valley to the west and saw the lights were still on on the other side. They went out however an hour later. Actually a good share of them are still out. Bryan's went out about the same time and are still out. The damage is quite bad in his heavily forested area. He has had a generator for 2 years now and it has really paid out.

Around 10:00 a.m. we broke out the radio. We have two, the small one did not seem to work so I took the boom box set up by the computer. I had to disconnect the speakers so I got the speakers of the small radio. the boom box required 8 batteries but we have plenty.

The storm news was continuos KOMO1000-AM. There are a lot of people out there in trouble. We are so fortunate. They take phone calls from every body. One lady was wondering how to keep her tropical fish warm. Another lived in a basement apartment and could not flush her toilet because all drainage had to be pumped up and out. Several persons called from their cars, telling of the problems in different locations and how dark it was without street lights or signal lights at intersections.

For lunch I made an egg salad sandwich, eggs were already cooked. For dinner we got the frying pan out to make BLT's. Having wire tongs we could make toast over the fire. Letha used one of her hot stuff gloves to keep from burning her hand and guess what, the glove caught fire, but only for a second.

At 10:00 PM on the 15th the power came on for 3 minutes. But off the went again. An hour later they came on for good.

Saturday I cleaned up the yard. There is enough junk limbs to fill the yard waste bucket for 3 weeks. The only food we had to throw out is Ice Cream and Corn Dogs.

We are so lucky - we have offered a place to some folks but none have come yet. Many will be in trouble for many days.
At one time over 1,000,000 people were with out lights. We really do have an idea how others suffer around the world, which many times worse than any of us up here in the North West.

December 18:
Our grandchildren were over today. In the evening the kids wanted pizza and KFC so Letha ordered the pizza and I headed for KFC in Woodenville., (they told me it was open), wrong. The ATM was open though so I loaded up and went to the supermarket. They were open but emergency power only, no frozen foods or fresh meat. This was at 5:00 pm when people were heading home from work and several traffic lights were out. I took the back streets up the hill, right past our house and over to Bothell. With luck, the supermarket was in full operation and they had the hot fixens for dinner. On the way back I picked up the pizza and all were happy. The grand kids come first, right? The power at their home is still out. Our son is looking into buying a second generator for back-up.

December 19:
Our son's power came back on 5 min. before December 20.

1. Now you look and sound like a Hoosier!

2. I'm glad to hear you and your wife made it through that bad time with not to much inconvenience. I wondered if you where in the affected area.