A Nothing Day

Our summer is moving along in the same way it does for many people I know: in the spring I saw a blank slate for weeks on end. I worried about the lack of structure and expected there would be time to do every fun thing I could think of. Now, past the halfway point, I feel like we've been awfully busy and can't find time for all the things I hoped we'd do.

Yesterday was our first day with all three boys and me at home all day, no plans. It was a rough transition. But this morning they've caught on. Jude is the only one dressed for the day. When he observed that Sam and Owen were still in pajamas Sam said happily, "Yeah, because this is a nothing day."

100 Hours

The power is back! At 12:30 this afternoon all the lights came on and Owen shouted, "Mom, we can play Wii now!" He's got a handle on the essentials.

For us this was a 100-hour power outage. I hope that's my lifetime record.

Tonight we are celebrating with a backyard campout. Tomorrow the temperatures are expected to turn up into miserable++ for a week or more. Tonight is beautiful. Praise God for the gorgeous weather we've had all week during out involuntary "campout".

Storm Damage Repair, 84 Hours

Isn't this exciting? Blow-by-blow coverage of our power outage.

Our street is quiet. The trucks are gone. We still do not have power.

I believe I mentioned that the crew on our street is from Georgia. They started work this morning with safety meetings at ComEd to learn the local regulations. They were sent to my block but had to wait around for a couple of hours until ComEd approved them to start working. They started about 6:00 p.m. and had to stop at 8:00 p.m. because there is a limit to how many hours they can work.

So they're gone for the night. They say we'll have power by noon tomorrow.

Ay caramba.

Storm Damage Repair, 83 Hours

They're here! The long wait is paying off with a good show. Two booms (is that what you call those little carts that go up in the air?) and a crane taking down lines and removing the broken utility pole.

Good bedtime entertainment.

The workers on our street are Georgia Power guys. It's good to hear some familiar southern accents on my block.

Storm Damage Repair, 76 Hours

There is one ComEd truck sitting on my street this morning. Nothing happened overnight. It sounds like there is plenty of manpower to make repairs but not enough materials. Nobody seems to know how long it will be until the missing stuff arrives. In the meantime, a guy is in a truck as a "line watcher" - helping make sure nobody gets too close to the downed lines.

I've felt pretty patient for the first 3 days of this. It was a very big storm and our street had a particularly big mess. Now we're on day 4 and I'm finding it hard to be good-natured.

Storm Damage Repair, 62 Hours

The utility company keeps calling my house (and every house in Gurnee) to reassure me that much progress is being made! Help is on the way! Lots of people have their power back!

That's nice, but my house has been dark for 62 hours and my street is still a mess.

This morning the tree guys came.

For today, this is what progress looks like.

We've seen at least a dozen ComEd trucks come and go. I'm not sure what they are doing but I feel like they're gawking. "Hey, look what a mess this block is! Glad we don't have to fix it."

Tonight we had three big trucks here for a while and I thought the calvary had arrived. Then two of them left. Then the other one left. Now we're back to one truck, carrying two spools of wire, sitting on the side of the road. I overheard him tell someone they are waiting for materials.

There are 3 utility poles on the lawn at church. All destined for Fuller Road?

We're all set up in the church kitchen now. It's like a weird camping trip. Sleep in your own bed, use candles and flashlights at night, walk a long way to get your breakfast. So glad toilets don't need electricity. Tomorrow morning I will walk over to the church kitchen to make coffee and fix lunches for my two daycampers.

In the evening, perhaps!, dinner from our own kitchen.

Storm Damage

Monday morning, 8:00 a.m.: Clouds roll in. Winds start to blow. Squires family sits happily in the bay window to watch a storm. We jumped back when this tree blew down and we saw the bolt of blue from the electrical wires coming down.

This is our front yard. This pine tree is now in three parts. One in the ground, one in the ditch, and one hanging from the wires.

This is the view down our street. There are wires down all over the place, including across the driveway into the church parking lot. It looks like at least one utility pole will have to be replaced. As I write we are 48 hours into the power outage. Church has electricity, so we have lots of modern amenities just a short walk from home.

The Com Ed trucks have been coming down our block and they probably look at this mess and think they'd rather go find a simpler problem to work on.

No major damage to our house or the church building. It looks like a lot of trees to clean up but not much else here. Today's forecast is in the 70s. If you have to be powerless, today's a good day for it.

Day at the Beach

Since we moved to Gurnee, Ben and the boys have spent several afternoons at the beach. It was a popular Sunday afternoon activity last summer when I was sick and had to stay home. To celebrate the 4th of July, they took me along. Great day.

Hey Mom! Watch this!

Happy guys.

Girl Meets Kohlrabi

One of the reasons I wanted to get a farm subscription this summer is so we'd try some new vegetables. It's working.

Last night we had a couple of kohlrabi languishing in the lower fridge area, so I cut one into matchsticks and put it on the dinner table next to some normalizing celery and dip. I never know what will happen between my family and a plate of crudites. Sometimes there are horrible faces and ignoring. Sometimes everybody samples and gets very excited.

Nobody embarrassed himself over the kohlrabi.

I've never had it before. One or two people told me they eat it raw like carrots and celery. It has a pleasant crunch and a challenging hint of radish bite. Maybe it will grow on me.

Ben and I talked in bright, non-judgmental tones about its flavor and texture. I invited all of the boys to try it and only Owen took me up on it. He ate one piece, slowly and thoughtfully, then declined another. I tried to piece that together into a little bandwagon marketing campaign:

"Guess what? Dad, Mom and Owen all have something in common. We all tried kohlrabi for the first time on July 4, 2011!" If you try it, you'll be in our cool club.

I don't have a big future in marketing. Sam and Jude looked blankly at me and then talked about the year 2011. Who cares about stupid kohlrabi and your club.

Highlights of the week:

Jude & Owen eating baby carrots with tops. We'd just come home from the farm, they were playing in the yard, and I came outside with freshly scrubbed rabbit food. Jude yelled, "Owen, it's carrot snack time!"

Grilled garlic scapes. Ben says they are tricky to maneuver on the grill because they threatened to fall through the grate. The well-cooked segments tasted like mild roasted garlic.

Baked beets. I have no beet experience, so on Mark Bittman's suggestion I wrapped each beet individually in foil and baked for 45 minutes. Used a couple on tossed salad. I thought it was nice. Ben left most of them on the plate.