It was quite a benign beginning to all of this pre-holiday stuff but I think that catching my breath after mom's death was made much more difficult by all of the LIFE that got in the way. It has been a couple of weeks since we took the West Coast family (East Coast family is here, safe and sound.) to cut Christmas Trees. We took the Big Ass Van up the Hill to Pollock Pines for our first Go See and the West Coast Family found their perfect tree to grace their living room. They really had to work for it and The Schnickle gave Brian a hand, cutting that Perfect Tree while Mama recorded the event and Grampy stood by to help.
Man was it cold up there that day and little did we know what was heading our way. We left Pollock Pines and made our way down the hill to another tree farm in Placerville, where we found OUR perfect tree, which happens to be a ginormous Silver Fir. The West Coast family helped us guard that perfect tree as Grampy went for a Cutter to gitterdone. These two are just perfect for one another and are officially engaged to be married. Aren't they cute? Lauren and Brian.
The next day, Lauren, The Scnickle, Grampy and I headed to town to watch the Christmas Parade. It actually did a little weather related shenanigans BEFORE we went down there but because of the little guy, we took our chairs and warm clothes and umbrella and gave it a try. As we were awaiting the beginning of the parade, it started to snow a little...that corn snow that seems to precede the REAL stuff. We were bundled up and laughing at ourselves but the little guy insisted that we stay and so we did. We waved and cheered with all of our fellow Placerville residents, awaiting the Big Man at the end of the parade. We thought that the snow on the Christmas parade was charming. Uh...
Early Monday morning, I realized that we were completely in the dark up here. Ok, power is out. It will come back on soon. Daybreak came and we saw what had happened overnight. Placerville was Ground Zero for the biggest early snowstorm in 20 years. We are "officially" below the snowline and the trees around here are not used to the loads of white stuff. BAM!
This tree broke in half and the top half hit the house, almost taking the phone line, which would have been disastrous, simply because we have no cell coverage up here. Rod got up the ladder and with the help of his trusty saw, eliminated enough branches to make moving the tree off of the house an easier job.
See what I mean? Look at the craziness!
We still thought that it was fun, when this picture was taken.
We had no idea that the power was going to be out for FOUR DAYS. It took us three days to shovel the driveway all of the way down so that we could get the 4 wheel drive to help us get down to Lauren's for a much needed shower. OY. I was talking to a lady from Texas when I heard a shudder on the house and a tree broke and took the power lines out at the house. I knew at that moment that we were screwed. On the 4th night, when the trees glowed with the lights from the PG&E trucks, I was overjoyed. They guys told us that they would not leave us until they got us hooked up. It took a long time because a tree was on the main line for us and our neighbors up the hill. With hot tea and cookies in their tummies, they headed back down the driveway and out to the street (it was a big struggle to get the big truck backed up to the road) to hook us back up. WHOOPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Now we have a blade for the front of the ATV (not on yet but we have it) and the electrician has been signed on to get a generator attached to the house. No more long days of no water or power for this old gal. This one really took the cake and wore me out.
Since then, Lorrie has been here to help me turn and burn the orders that came in while we were out of commission. They all went out and we finished the latest ones today.
We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary a week late because the actual day was spent helping out at a memorial for our friend, Russ Simpson, who died suddenly when we were in Hartford for Stitches. It was a lovely event and so many people came together to give Russ a good send-off. He was a model maker for the original Star Trek movie and spent his last years with his model railroad business. He will be sorely missed by all of his friends and fans.
We got to help the Schnickle celebrate his 4th birthday and our anniversary all in one fell swoop, going bowling with the West Coaster's. It was a wonderful surprise and so much fun. I forgot how much l loved bowling and had to re-educate my bowling muscles. My fingers have developed much more enlarged knuckles with all of the hard work that my hands have done since last we bowled and it was hard to find a ball that was not 16 pounds that would fit my hand! It was all good fun.
Brian caught three big Lake trout the day before and cooked them up for our wonderful dinner. We had to delay the dinner just a bit because the Cameron Park fire department was sending their guys our on a Santa Run around the neighborhoods, lights and sirens going like crazy while the young firemen ran alongside, handing out candy canes as we waved at Santa. It was remarkable.
Our weekend was completed with our third annual ride on Doc Wiser's wonderful stagecoach in town. He is such a cool guy and he and his friends make sure that Placerville is a fun family destination, during the holidays. The friends dress up in period costume and help with the fun.
So, now we are pretty much caught up. The East Coast Souza's are napping after their LONG ordeal of trying to get here, just as a big snow storm hit the east coast. It's all good.