And I have ceased my labors . . .

(Enlarge the photo to see a mosaic on a building in York, England.)

We've had a very good week but I'll admit it has been an unusual one. The eldest and his wife flew home from Baton Rouge last Saturday and a tropical storm, which will remain nameless and lower case, hit us Sunday. I had just finished making pancakes when we lost power. At least two trees fell and blocked half of the road and then an entire, very large tree blocked the whole road and various branches from other trees also landed on the power lines. At our home the line was in the yard. Father and son cut the tree limb blocking half of the road in front of our house. Neighbors further up the street opened up the the blocked portions near their homes so at least people could get through. I figured we'd have power back in 24 hours. Foolish moi. Power came back yesterday. We went Sunday to Sunday without power. We are lucky that we have city water so at least we could flush the toilet and with a very old propane camp stove we were able to cook up the thawed meats from the fridge. We had stew and chili for a couple of days and kept the milk, butter and beer and white wine chilled in coolers. Daughter and son-in-law kept us in ice and I did the wash at their home in Groton. They only lost power for about 12 hours. What a blessing! Grampa even managed to get warm water for a limited number of showers by snaking the garden hose on the driveway so the sun could heat it up. He then snaked the hose through the bedroom window, over a chair and into the tub. Neato! Kiddo even started Second Grade Wednesday right on schedule. I think Sacred Heart was the only school in eastern Connecticut to start the 2011 school year on time. We spent time playing cribbage by kerosene lamp and candle light, listening to the radio, reading by flashlight, looking at the very beautiful night sky and sleeping with windows opened in almost pitch dark. Not too shabby. Our Eighth Annual Horseshoe Tournament was held as usual yesterday in spite of the lack of power. The company was great, the kids were numerous and the smoke rose from the chimney at 3:30 pm announcing the arrival of electricity to our humble cottage. We cheered, one and all. When the power trucks started to parade past the party to continue their work in other forlorn places the 50 of us yelled out our "Thank yous!" and they graciously tooted their "You're welcomes." Now that was fun so I broke down and dug out the small amount of Lemoncello di Créma and drank it on ice as a tribute the wonderfulness of hot water. Yay! Getting tired now as we were up at 3:30am to bring son and wife to the airport in Providence. Time for a hot supper, a hot shower and a deep sleep.

Quote: Hail! holy light, offspring of heaven, first born! ___Milton