COLD BUT NOT IN KYIV
Last night the American way of distributing power, by stringing electric wires past trees that can fall at any time, finally caught up with us. We have had two big snowstorms with ten inches of snow each time in the last six weeks and the power never went off. But today warm humid air from the Gulf of Mexico met bitterly cold arctic air from the north over the Appalachian mountains where we live and the wind became intense. Our power went off in the middle of the night and soon came back on again and Duke Power told us by email when it went off and when it was going to come on. It went off again in the middle of the morning and soon came back on again. But this time Duke Power informed us when it went off but stated that they were too busy to send us any more alerts. We haven’t heard from them since. At about 2 p.m. the power went off again and this time it looks as if it will be off all night.
There is a map on line showing where the power is off in the Asheville area. It must be off in twenty or thirty spots, some with hundreds of homes, our circled spot includes about 60 homes. So we are at the bottom of the list to be restored, I’m sure. So we don’t expect power until tomorrow morning at some point.
It is 7 p.m. now. This house has electric heat which is off but also has a Swedish wood stove which I filled with paper starter and wood during the previous storms and never used. So the wood stove radiates an orange glow and plenty of heat. Our living room is cozy warm. We heated supper on the top of the wood stove and have hot water for tea or hot chocolate. The temperature tonight will go down to 14 degree Fahrenheit, -7 Celsius and will be down to -10 Celsius by morning with a hard wind blowing which will make it feel much colder outside where the power company is trying to restore power.
But we are so warm and comfortable with plenty to eat and running water and all our electronic devices working and a car outside to drive us into Asheville where there is power if we wish. But even this tiny taste of cold and minor inconvenience reminds us of families in Ukraine under bombardment without heat or water in the cold that is as bad as here. Their pain must be almost unbearable and our inconvenience is merely the excitement of one night with a fire in the wood stove and candles all around and plenty of flashlights. While we are having an exciting evening the inhabitants of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities are cowering in fear.
In addition, to make the contrast with Kyiv even more dramatic, this evening I changed Susie’s flight to Paris. Because she is unable to work for the next two months, at least, because of the compression fracture in her spine thet she suffered on Monday, but is still able to walk and drive and climb steps, she is going to recuperate for the first month after her accident and then come to Paris for three weeks instead of ten days to stay in the Airbnb in Montmartre with me which I have already paid for. So if we can keep from having more accidents or catching Covid (I got my second Pfizer booster two days ago) we will be in Paris for April. But in this uncertain world, who knows.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 