Sheriff Buford T Justice

We had some pretty powerful storms roll thru my area of New York last night. One of the trees on my sisters property [right next door to mine] fell, and took out the power line to our end of the street.We were without power from 5pm to a lil after 6 am this morning. I was being the good wife yesterday afternoon,and made 3 trays of lasanga...one for dinner,and two for the freezer.I believe the freezer ones are ok,they went in the freezer 2 hours before we lost power.The dinner one was cooked thru,but the power went out as I took the foil off to brown it up.And I didn't get to roast the asparagus,damn.

SO, you might ask, what did Team Gail do in the dark last night? [hey,the 2 boys were here,get your mind out of the gutter,at least for a while ] Well,Tony has a long life battery on his laptop,and since I was out-numbered, we wound up watching Smoky and the Bandit on the laptop, and Steve and I played a drinking game [ Stevie was driving and could not play,and Tony is 19,so no booze for him] [this is something we haven't done since college, but it sounded, like most things do,like a good idea in the dark ] .....every time Burt laughed or Jackie said something stupid we had to drink.Now,I popped for a bottle of Grey Goose for Steve,as a congrats for inventory well done,but I chose rum and diet coke as my drink. That was a mistake,.......it's been a Loooong time since I played this game, and I believe I played with beer or wine, not mixed drinks. The funniest thing though,was Stevie.He bought a guitar,and hasn't started lesson one, he just brought it down to show me [and "allow" me to tune it for him] and every time we had to drink he played a heartfelt strum on his guitar,my belly hurts from laughing at him laughing at us :o) I had a wee bit of a headache this morning,but declared myself the winner. [because it's MY blog,that's why]
The electrical repair crew didn't show up until 4am, and then proceeded to shine the klieg lights right in our bedroom window and start chain sawing. And I'll tell you what,I AM bitching at them tomorrow. I don't give a rats ass HOW many people are without power,the only fair way to determine who gets repair first is:
-are there any over-riding concerns like medical concerns or life support equipment in any areas, is there a hospital,or school, ect., then
-whoever the hell called for repair first.
My power company goes by,the bigger the population of the town,the higher priority they are,if there are multiple areas out of power.And there were multiple areas without power last night. My town is TINY, so we are always last served,but last time I looked I pay the same rates as my bigger town counterparts do. And the food in my fridge and freezer cost just as much as theirs did. I call bullshit on that.

Poor Steve!! He went out this morning,to get cash and to gas up his car.He calls me from the gas station, Hon,I think I left my card in the atm [which is in a Walmart] I called the bank right away,and it was still there,so they held it for him.He walks in and says his wife called...and the lady says, you left your card in the atm,right? And Steve says Yes,..and she says,yeah,I can see it on your face :::hehehe:::: I wonder how many faces like that they see in a week. A happy ending,but unnerving to say the least.

I'll say this now,so you have all week to git 'er done....but,when we turn back the clocks next weekend,you NEED to change the batteries in your smoke and CO2 detectors, if they're not hard-wired. I started doing this years ago,when a smoke detector went bat shit at 3am, [this was when the insomnia wasn't so bad...now, I'd get a bowl of popcorn and go watch it ] and I realized I couldn't remember WHEN I changed the batteries .Also,the American National Fire Protection Association:

http://www.nfpa.org/index.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1

recommends that you replace the batteries twice a year, [when a lot of the country changes their clocks] and the detectors themselves every 10 years. If you can't remember how old it is, replace it. There are some things you can't replace. My family home burned down when I was 15.....none of us were home, but we all still carry the scars from it. You need to get those batteries this week, and new detectors if necessary. You can write the date you bought the detectors in marker on the back of them,so you don't need to remember when you replaced them. And if you are hard-wired, clean 'em and test 'em. Just a lil PSA from me to you. Because I care so much :O)

October 27th- Cranky Co-Worker Day