Simplicity…

And so after 10 days and two hours, our power/internet/phone/cable TV were finally restored.

I learned a lot from these last 10 days.

I learned that you don’t need a lot to survive.

What you do need, is friends and community, someone in charge, a lot of humor, and what I’m most grateful for is a spouse that was resourceful, constant, and present.  And for the most part, spending 10 days straight morning noon and night with someone who has been living overseas for the last couple years proved that the relationship is strong, and enduring and that we both came out of it knowing that life is better when we are together, even in the midst of chaos.

That said, having a very generous neighbor with a big ass generator who graciously allowed us to plug in two outlets, snaked across 200 feet, saved our butts.  We plugged in the fridge, and kept one additional outlet for recharging things like cell phones and laptops and a couple of low wattage LED lamps.  And of course there is a lot of gratitude for the utility crew from Ohio that finally restored out power last night.

Turns out when we bought this house 30 years ago, we did a number of smart things.  My husband insisted we have natural gas to the house.  I was young and what did I know.  Turns out he was so smart.  A few years into living in this house, we put in a wood burning stove.  The original design of the house with the firebox central to both levels (built pre 1914) allows the heat from the wood stove to heat most of the house well enough to maintain a comfort level in spite of 20 degree temps at night and another blustery snowy nor’easter that hit on Wednesday. (We got five inches of snow.  Any other time I would have thought it was pretty.)  It was almost a full time job to keep the wood stove fed and we went through a lot of wood.  Which was fine because we had a lot of wood from all the trees we took out the last two summers which meant that there were none to fall on the house.  It was my idea to pull out the 60 foot maple last summer that towered over my studio.  I can pretty much guess that it would have split or worse come down in this devastating storm and it would have taken out my studio.  There are no words for my gratitude of timing.

It is the simplicity of just staying safe and warm, and meeting the daily needs that I will almost miss.  We worked mostly in the daylight, when it got dark around 5 o’clock, it was really dark.  There is the ability to adapt when you give up that which you can’t have.  And humor played a big role. Like when my husband posted a comment on my Facebook page when I mentioned that it was time for the power to come on since I was down to my last pair of clean underwear.  He told me to go “commando” which brought a lot of chuckles from those who had access to Facebook.

There are still a few hundred thousand without power here in NJ.  My son who was mobilized in the National Guard stopped in late last night for a 24 hour leave, to do laundry and get some sleep.  He will return down the shore for another 30 days.  He has seen a lot in the last two weeks.

And so, within an hour of the power returning, I felt my system gear up for getting back to work, heart racing, adrenaline pumping and lying awake thinking of all I needed to do and accomplish.  The odd thing is, I felt none of that for the last 10 days.  There was a daily routine that was simple, basic, and just getting through the days with grace was enough.  I sort of miss that when we shut out the lights, it was really dark.  No glowing electronics, flashing lights and digital clock readouts.  It was dark and under five layers of quilts and blankets with no clocks to haunt me, I slept really well…

And so, I am standing at the ironing board after sorting and tagging some 80 handwoven works I’ve dug out of the vast archives, and I’m loading them into suitcases to take over to my guild sale that for some miraculous reason, against all odds, is still happening this weekend in Mendham, NJ.  Here is the link if you can get there and support your local handweavers.  Jockey Hollow Show and Sale.

Stay tuned…