Power

Katie's beautiful peony!

Yesterday afternoon, as I was leaving work for home, the skies were dark with clouds and the wind was churning.  Decades-old trees lining North Broadway in Saratoga Springs were giving way to the wind, and seemed almost elastic in their bending.  I was concerned but wanted to get home quickly.  Visibility was OK for the first few minutes, but as I turned onto First Street and proceeded west, rain was coming down in sheets and hail started to ping against my windshield, bouncing off the hood of my car.  I continued cautiously down Denton Road toward Locust Grove.  As I turned northwest onto Route 9N, I couldn't clearly see what was coming at me so I turned into the parking lot of the Kettle Restaurant and waited until things calmed down.  There were six cars there before me, doing the same thing.  It was the worst weather we've experienced here since Hurricane Irene made her presence known in September.  We never had one winter day this bad, this year.  Of course, the power was out when I got home, and Katie had made dinner (gas stove).  We settled in to a long night of waiting for power to be restored.  When I woke up at 5:30 this morning, ahead of my alarm, we were still without power, which we learned later wouldn't be back until mid-afternoon.  Well, I wanted to take a shower and wash my hair before work, so I packed up a bag and headed to the Skidmore gym to use the locker room shower.  When I checked in to the sports center, I was informed that the locker rooms were out of commission for an upgrade, and I was given the access code to the guest teams' locker room.  At first I was impressed - it looked like a great place for half-time motivation - until I turned on the shower.  The nozzle sprayed water in a half-spray, half-mist (freezing cold!) and in a 5-foot diameter circle.  No water seemed to fall within the radius of that circle.  So there I was, trying to get wet chasing the circumference of this icy waterfall, and then trying to get the shampoo out of my hair - not so easy.  I said "forget it" to the conditioner.  I had been looking forward to using the wall dryer for my hair, as I did in the "regular" locker room.  No dryer.  So, my  hair dried like the wild woman that I was this morning, and I arrived in the office with a somewhat different look than what my co-workers are used to!

The day got better, though.  This afternoon, I made it to Henry's graduation from his nursery school class (adorable ceremony) and when I got home, the power was indeed back on.  Little things seemed so significant.  I got out of the car and was drawn to Katie's peony bushes, and snapped a few photos.  Then I took a couple of pictures of the flowers that were my Mother's Day gift, now in a window box.  I had dinner with Henry and Pete while Katie ran an errand, gave them a bath, got them in their PJs, and settled them down with yet another Thomas movie before their mom returned.  Pete was snoring in the crook of my arm when Katie got home, and Henry was trying to convince us that "two more minutes" of Thomas was all he needed, as his eyes were trying to stay open.  It had been a very long day.

Henry's graduation today

The sound of the refrigerator, the whir of a fan, cold milk from the fridge, and light at the flick of a switch made me grateful for the power that keeps us going.

For a day that started out with no power, barely a shower, and wild and crazy hair, the evening was one of cozy comfort and appreciation for the littlest people, and things.

Pretty posies...