Sculpin

“Oh, this area is a priority. We think you’ll have power by Wednesday.” So say the Seattle City Light crews in Lake Forest Park. My mom has been out of power for almost three days now. She’s putting a brave face on it, mostly, but she’s looking pretty stressed. I’ve pressed extra firewood and Duraflame logs on her, given her a place to take a hot shower, and bugged her several times to come down here with the cat and crash. Not much more I can do, I think.

Next time we have a long winter outage, I want it to go like this: we have a woodstove, and we invite all the neighbors over for coffee, hot chocolate, and cookies. Blackout party at Sculpin House. I wish I had thought to knock on neighbors’ doors with a thermos of coffee during the outage. I could have made the day of some coffee-addicted owner of an electric stove.

Today I dragged most of the downed branches and twigs out of the front yard and piled them in back. They might act as a windbreak for my sage bush, and small birds might enjoy hiding in them.

Update 12/19: At last, my mom has power. She toughed it out for almost a week, through below-normal temperatures in the darkest time of the year. Here’s hoping that tomorrow’s storm doesn’t cut the power right off again.

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