TLtT

Like many families, mine has some traditions centering around birthday celebrations. For instance, on their birthdays, I pick out presents for my husband and my two kids. And they get to choose what restaurant the family will go to for dinner on their special days (or as close to them as we can manage).

Tomorrow is my birthday. Per my family’s birthday tradition, I’ve already bought my own presents*. And I’ve already been told what we’re having for dinner, at home, on my special day.**

*Some movies that had been on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time. I pretended to be surprised when they arrived in the mail.

**Spaghetti and meatballs. It’s not a favorite of mine, but at least my husband and my two kids really like it.

 Notes from the primitive zone:

Disjointed, probably. I am so tired. We had a tornado or near-tornado here last night. Winds in excess of 70 mph anyway. Thunder, rain, lightning. Among other things, we lost power a little after 9 PM and as of now, 12 hours later, we’re still waiting to get it back. We ended up staying at a hotel last night, and between the girls being antsy and my uncomfortable bed, I maybe got four hours of sleep. And I think that’s a generous estimate.

Also the big pine tree in front of the house, the one that survived the city’s biggest tornado to date, toppled over. Between the high winds and the ground being softened from a week of rain, it just couldn’t hold on anymore. Luckily it came down in the “best” possible way: not on our house, or Dr. Olson’s house, or in the street, but across the front deck. The van, which was sitting in the driveway, wasn’t damaged. Just the top of the gate was bent and the deck rail was damaged a bit. In a way though I wish it had fallen in the street, because then the city would have made it a priority to clean it up. Now who knows when we’ll be rid of it.

Currently I’m listening to music from my Kindle – so glad I didn’t delete the music files when I was tempted to! I’d sooner keep the iPod charged up for now. I can’t access the internet on the Kindle anyway. I still have my phone. (Ah yes. Didn’t mention that we’ve now switched from a landline-and-cellphone household to cellphone-only. So all of us but R now have our own phones. R will get one when she’s a bit older.) But as luck would have it, the battery is low and of course I didn’t think to bring my charger to the hotel last night. I was able to text Troy last night and tell him what happened. But I can’t chat with him today, and I miss him. sigh.

Do I have too much of my life on my computer? Well, obviously. But I was also going to bake banana bread today, which I obviously can’t do now. I could clean the kitchen if I weren’t so tired. I’ve been drinking a (lukewarm) Dr. Pepper and so far the caffeine and sugar are keeping me functional.

I really really hope we get power back before dark. Before suppertime would be even better. I do not want to spend another night in a hotel. I’m hurting all over from that bed.

So now it looks like we most likely will be spending another night at the hotel. It’s 4:30 and there are no signs that anything is being done to restore power yet. I believe the plan is to go out to supper, then come back here in hopes that a miracle will have occurred, or will yet occur before bedtime. Who knows.

Meanwhile I’ve half-dozed and read my way through the day. The kids and I finished up both Ghosts I Have Been and Farmer Boy, and I’ve been reading Margaret Atwood’s Life Before Man. As usual when I read too much Atwood I’ve started narrating my life mentally, semi-poetically. It’s a bit unnerving to catch myself at it and I’m sure it’s not good for my writing. I haven’t even attempted any real writing today, though I should have. I haven’t had the mental or physical energy for anything today, really.

Meanwhile the Men went out and bought a new generator, because our old one refused to work. So the sump holes have been pumped out and the fridges given some much-needed chilling. And Shane is now outside manfully decapitating the evergreen so that the driveway will be at least partially negotiable.

(See what I’m doing there? The woman ruins me.)

My phone needs recharging and the battery in the Kindle died after about two hours of music-playing. I thought it would have done better than that. I intend to bring all my little gadgets, including the iPod, along to the hotel to charge or use them. I discovered that the clock radios in the rooms have an mp3 input, so I can have my music to go to sleep and wake up with. Though I still hope we won’t need to go there at all. But I expect we will.

It’s mainly on account of the kids that we’re going at all. After all we still have running water (even hot, if need be) and I wouldn’t care if I had to spend the night here without electricity. But R can’t sleep without her nightlights, and dealing with her is more than I can do when I’m this tired.

I discovered after a better-lit look that the trunk of the pine tree came right down on the deck railing, so the entire corner area is smashed. Still could have been worse. I’m sad to see that tree go. It was one of the tallest in the neighborhood, and just starting to get its spring growth.

The garden was untouched, apart from a bit of twig and leaf litter. It’s supposed to be warmer tomorrow so I’ll pick it out then, if I’m not too tired. The beans are doing really well so far, and the spinach too, I think.

I almost forgot to mention that Cheryl and J were up for the weekend. We spent Friday evening and most of Saturday with them, then got together with Lisa, Rick, Greg, Heidi and the boys, as well as Will and Debi, for a picnic at Gooseberry Park on Sunday. With everything that happened last night Sunday feels like about a week ago already.

I feel terribly out of touch with the world today. No Twitter, no Facebook, no internet at all … no Troy. I’ll probably be a bit out of synch for a while even after I do get back online.

I could have cleaned the kitchen today if I weren’t so freakin’ tired.

I actually have a plan in place for my birthday this year: movie night with Will and Debi. I hope it actually happens, but I won’t hold my breath.

Today would have been not as bad if the sun had been out. I might even have been inspired to do something useful.