One of the trunks rests on the neighbors house.

Civilized Camping Update
Sent: 12/16/06 9:22 PM
from my Windows Mobile device (pocket PC)

It is 9 pm Saturday and we are still without electricity (almost 48 hours now). . We had hot showers at my friend Katie's house, a mile from mine and she never lost power. Good thing, too, since she has a 2 month old baby and no alternate heat. Thanks for the water, Katie!

We are beng teased by a street lamp on the corner, which came on about 2 hours ago. A few minutes ago 3 City Light trucks were up there, probably observing the tree leaning on the wires. They drove away a few minutes later. Oh well. There are lots of trees across streets, it is going to take time.

We had a wonderful dinner. Steve cooked a roast we had been aging for a week in a cast iron dutch oven on the back patio using charcoal briquets. He put in carrot, onion and celery and a splash of wine. I prepared a package of Toasted Pine Nut Cous Cous. We have it made with our new wood stove fireplace insert. We are warm and are able to cook on it. Between that and all we have learned from teardrop camping, we are more capable than many of taking care of ourselves. We have lots of candles and oil lamps and we are listening to a battery operated radio we finally bought yesterday. It much better with some music. I wish it was bright enough to read.

We even prepared brunch for 6. We had my family over for Xmas. I cooked eggs in small cast iron fry pans on the stove while Steve did bacon and hash browns outside in dutch ovens. We had hot apple cider and coffee and tea and enjoyed coffee cake from a local bakery.

I have some good pictures of the cedar tree(s) that came down in the back yard but I can't update my blog until I have power. We'll need a pro to take down the part leaning on the neighbors house. Tomorrow we will be going by Katie's again to use her internet access to find a rental car for me. The MINI goes in to a shop on Wednesday. We still hope it's not serious damage.

We don't drive around much since finding fuel is such a problem. Tomorrow Steve will work on the trees in the backyard and I will be washing a whole dishwasher full of dishes. Unless we get lucky and the power comes back on!

Note: The power came on at 3 AM, and we started the dishwasher at 7 AM and went back to bed! I was very happy to not have to wash all those dishes!