Shifting Gears

I mentioned to my dearest (and longest-time – NOT oldest!) friend this week that things were getting back to “normal” to which she replied that normal was a setting on the dryer!  Reminded me of the t-shirt my daughters gave me when I got divorced that said “My Next Husband Will Be Normal” – then I dated “normal” and was completely bored!

So what is normal?  In our case it’s getting back to the routine whereby you hit the light switch and the room changes from dark to light, when you turn on the water faucet and water comes out of it, when the refrigerator light comes on and the food is cold and finally when all the lights on your cable internet modem are solid green and you can once again connect to the outside world via your PC!  For Burl it went one step further…..cable TV and TIVO but since I once spent 10 years without a TV (my choice) that particular specification was not on my list of normal.

Suffice it to say we have had an interesting week since I left work last Friday – the weather was already turning nasty and our Friday night date quickly turned into dinner and a stop at the video store for a couple of flicks.  We have learned in the course of the last 7 days how resourceful we can be and how much the little things in life can make us happy – things like finding the flashlight and it works, getting a hot shower, feeling the warmth from the wood that burns in our fireplace and realizing we may only lose 2 trees on our property.

People seem to come together in crises – we’ve had offers of help and have extended the same to others.  Good friends are warm and lit now because they are borrowing our generator that we purchased at about the 50-hour mark in our blackout.  Someone else will use the chain saw this weekend to get trees cleared in his yard and cut up the limbs for removal later.  We’ve been fed but more importantly we’ve seen people reaching out to others to help in so many ways.  The human spirit is so resilient and for that we are thankful.

Not everyone has power restored – daughter Tammy and hubby Steve are staying warm and lit but are “camping” at a neighbor’s house which I know is very trying for them – it’s not the same as home and their cats recognize that even more than our kids do.  They are dealing with far more stress than we did and we admire their fortitude.  Others have experienced frozen and broken pipes which pales in comparison to the frozen hot tub on our deck – we plan to let it thaw naturally and pray the pipes don’t freeze and bust but if they do it won’t be as devastating as if it had been in our home.  A friend in Rotary was killed when his car crushed him into the side of his home – the Springfield community lost a good citizen and businessman and his family lost a loving father and husband.  They are in my prayers.

The weekend forecast is for 4-6″ of snow and sub-32 degree temps so we may once again experience winter’s blast.  Whatever comes our way we will try to accept it with grace and a sense of humor.

In case you’re wondering, my next husband isn’t normal – he’s a very loving and giving person who demonstrated his true colors this week as he went out of his way to see that we stayed comfortable in our home and that Mulligan and I stayed warm and well fed.  He has trimmed trees both at our home and at our rental property, helped friends with their yards, delivered and hooked up a generator for friends and I’m sure performed other selfless acts that I’ll never know about – thanks Burl.