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A Solstice Miracle

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. We’ve been getting up before dawn since Xy started back to school. Without electricity, that’s kind of a pain. The first thing I do in the morning is light an oil lamp. So I’ve been looking forward to the days getting longer.

This morning was extra fun because Lucy’s got diarrhea. Nothing beats stepping barefoot in a cold puddle of stinking feline fecal matter in the dark.

I would have taken Lucy into the vet, but they couldn’t take her until tomorrow. So, after dropping Xy off at school and getting some breakfast, I was puttering around the house and not feeling very productive. I was cold. I wanted to take a hot bath.

I noticed someone working on a neighboring house. I figured if I took a hot bath, they’d find some reason to knock on our door.

I took a hot bath anyway. Sure enough, a knock came within minutes.

I hopped out of the tub, wrapped a towel around myself and dripped my way to the front door. To my utter amazement, it was an Entergy guy come to hook up our electricity. He was only two days late instead of two weeks!

A good thing I’d been home after all. Our electric meter is behind a locked gate. If I hadn’t been there to unlock it, who knows how long we’d be set back.

He disconnected our generator (to prevent potentially fatal “backfeed”) and removed some plastic sheathes from inside the meter. Then he took a great long telescoping rod and flipped a transformer shut atop a nearby utility pole.

Now we have power. I danced and sang and generally acted a fool. It’s been almost four months, but we’re back on the grid.

I plugged in our holiday lights. Normally I call them Christmas lights, but this year I’m calling them holidays lights to annoy Bill O’Reilly.

Published inHoly DazeKatrinaOur HouseWeather & Seasons

8 Comments

  1. Laureen Laureen

    Oh, my god, that’s great news ! Glad to hear your holiday lights were right up there as a top priority. I am hoping Jim Louis has such luck this week down on Rocheblave.

  2. Tim Tim

    Welcome to civilization! I’m also living and writing in New Orleans. My house was taken by the flood, so my family is living in an apartment in the “sliver by the river” now. Peace, and more power to you!!!

  3. JimL doesn’t take very good care of his business and is patiently waiting, but jeesus enough already. Talked to the sculptor today and she said she talked to Entergy recently and they said, well it appears your block is not online, or something like that, and the sculptor said well yeah that’s kinda the point of my call.

  4. […] Now we have power in the ceiling, meaning our overhead lights and fans work. It was almost a year exactly since we got power but that was only a partial quick fix. For a whole year we’ve had power only in half our receptacles, and we’ve been using floor lamps. […]

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