Paul & Mary's Daily Diary

Blowing all night long

We had difficulty sleeping as the wind was blowing (and whistling) all night.  At 6:30 am, I got up, turned on the heat, and entered today’s stat of the Daily Diary because we may lose power anytime.

At 2:30 am, we got this from SCE: “Congratulations! You’ve won a lifetime supply of… unexpected outages?” Who knew the electric company was also in the comedy business?:

We will likely shut off your power in the next four hours due to wind-driven fire conditions, which could last through Wednesday afternoon. We are working to reduce the number of customers affected. Weather could also affect shutoff timing, and wind-related outages may occur. We will notify you again if we shut off your power. For the latest updates, outage map, and availability of community resources, click here.

While the internet was up, I checked our local forecast, which, as expected, informed me it would be a windy day. Perfect! Just what I need—free hair styling courtesy of Mother Nature! Looks like I might need to anchor myself down to avoid taking an unexpected flight down the street. I can already picture the headlines: “Local Resident Gets Lifted by Wind, Lands in Neighbor’s BBQ—Now in Charge of Grilling!”

When I went out to change Luigi’s water and give him some food, I noticed our gazebo must have gotten mad and blew his top!  His cover looked like a teenage girl’s jeans!

We got ready to go to the gym, taking the world’s fastest showers, we were hoping to avoid having our hair full of soap and the water turn cold when the power went out. Our tankless hot water system needs electricity to start!

I was sure the neighbors would call the authorities if I showed up in the garage with the door open, pulling on the starter cord in my birthday suit…. which reminds me, I have to get my birthday suit ironed. It is full of wrinkles!

Joe has our van until his truck came home from the hospital.  That’s good because we don’t need it for several more weeks, but we saw a cartoon we might use someday if we get asked again!

p.s.  I sent the cartoon to Joe and he replied he loves the red covers! I am now worrying about that boy! 

The bewitching hour came upon us, and we departed for the dreaded gym. My cough is gone, but my nose is running like a fire hydrant because of all the crud in the air caused by the fires. The gym owner, a great guy, took me to his office and worked on my back for an hour, and I could sit up and get my nose to cease.

We were hungry and went to The Original Pancake House on Chapman.  We always share there because their omelets are generally 1500 calories, which means they are huge.  We shared a spinach and cheese omelet, and it was terrific.

Breakfast was outstanding!

We returned home and began our cleaning and organizing activities. Mary worked in her bathroom and the master bedroom while I worked in the two large closets in the office and Robin’s nest. I helped in the master bedroom by going through my chest of drawers, and oh my, what I was doing with 60 pairs of underwear and two dozen unmatched/worn-out socks was crazy. Mary and I are organized now!!

We must say that things are looking good!  We worked until it got dark and then visited Jeff, taking our glasses of vino with us and keeping him company for a good half-hour.   He reminded us that his wife passed away on January 19th, five years ago.  Suer will have passed five years ago on the 17th of February.

When we returned home, Robin called us for the nightly video conference. We shared our plans for the day before Valentine’s Day with her, and she will join the Zaitz/Liles for a pre-Valentine’s Day dinner (we will be on the ship on Valentine’s Day).

Hello, video!

We lost a good friend this evening.  Dru Cisneros was ostracized BECAUSE she gave us a wonderful fruit cake right after Christmas and when we decided not to have dinner our minds turned to the frig and there it was, low and behold, the prize fruit cake.  WE FINISHED IT! Thanks Dru for doing in our New Year’s resolution to slim down!

From the Collin Nakery in Texas, a calorie bomb!!

By 9:30 pm, we were ready for bed, and let me tell you, it felt like we had just run a marathon—if marathons involved cleaning/organizing a house! At this point, I could’ve sworn my bed was calling my name like a long-lost friend: “Come snuggle in!” It had been such a long day that even my pillow looked like it was plotting a world record for fluffiness!

Perhaps “cleaning” is the wrong word.  We are just going through all our drawers and closets and eliminating things we do not need, things out of date, things we can’t recognize, etc.

When we were having lunch, the doorbell rang low. Behind me were my fantastic son and his trusty sidekick, Charlie.   They worked for two hours, including a trip to Home Depot for tires/innertubes/

The generator has new oil, a clean air filter, and a full tummy – we are ready for tomorrow!

Joe and Charlie also installed my drain valve on the air compressor so I can drain water whenever needed without moving the tank!

No more flat tires; these are solid rubber!

We spent the rest of the day working in the house or garage.

As it got late, we watched a ten-part TV series entitled “The Night Agent.”  Summary: “The Night Agent” tells the story of FBI agent Peter Sutherland, stationed in the White House basement as a “night agent” manning a rarely used emergency phone line, who gets pulled into a dangerous conspiracy when a young woman, Rose Larkin, calls seeking protection after witnessing a murder, forcing him to uncover a mole within the highest levels of the US government while protecting her from assassins and unraveling a plot that could threaten national security; based on the novel by Matthew Quirk.

We continued sorting clothes. We now have five large boxes of clothes, sheets, and blankets.

In all my 80 years on this planet, I NEVER had allergies, but I could give Rudolph a run for his money at Christmastime because I have been blowing my nose ALL DAY LONG!

When we woke up, it was darker than a black hole wearing sunglasses!  It was darker than the inside of a cat! I half expected to bump into my own coffee mug and have to negotiate a peace treaty with my slippers!

There is no power again. We are getting used to going outside in the early morning, collecting wood from the neighbor’s house, starting a fire, and having coffee.

The generator and I are having quite a love affair! I open the gascock and put his rope in, and he purrs like a kitten! Hundreds of killy-wobbles support the generator through the lines, making the refrigerators hum like a beehive.

Go, baby, go!

We fixed breakfast for Jeff and brought it to him; we joined him in getting our own!  We took his battery backup, which was at zero, and plugged it into our generator, and within three hours, it was fully charged.

More bad news about the fires, and I thought this appropriate.  Newscum and his whack environmentalists save a useless fish, do not clean up the forests, defund the police and firefighters, and push DEI and other liberal crap on us… this is what you get!

Ready for this…According to the report, homelessness funding was larger than the LAFD budget for the second year in a row.

This idiot should be horsewhipped!

The power finally returned around 2:00 p.m. We cleaned up all the cables, moved the generator out of the way, reset the clocks, and sat to watch a new American Primeval series. The series examines the fight to gain control of the American West and the sometimes violent clash between religion and culture in Utah Territory.

We crashed early.