Notes from Maine - 2020/12/05
It’s raining here today. I love a good rainy day. It’s such a great excuse to hide in the house, protected from the weather. Later tonight, it’s supposed to turn to wet, heavy snow. I hope I don’t lose power again. On Monday afternoon, the power went out and didn’t come back until the middle of the day on Tuesday. When that happens, I have to drag a generator around the house just to get heat and water.
A few years ago, we had a bad storm in October and the power was out for a week. Mom was visiting. She was beside herself because she couldn’t work on several of the projects she wanted to get done. She gets very cranky when she’s not able to work on her projects.
Still, it was kinda fun that we had to walk around with headlamps and light the stove with a match if we wanted to cook. The outage was so bad that even the stores in town were dark. I believe the grocery store had to throw out all their frozen food because their generator went down for a while.
With no TV or internet, our evening entertainment was a jigsaw puzzle. It’s amazing how quickly an event moves from hardship to normal. By the time the power came back, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. We hung up the headlamps and went back to regular life.
That experience reinforced my theory that a lot of people, myself included, don’t really experience life, we experience change. My lights and heat are on right now, but I don’t think about them until they’re gone. My elbow hurt a few days ago, but I don’t think about it because it doesn’t hurt now.
This isn’t a huge revelation, I know. We’re supposed to take time to have gratitude for all the good things in our life because otherwise it’s easy to forget all the reasons we should be happy. How many things am I worrying about right now? Why don’t I spend at least that much time being happy for all the things I don’t have to worry about?
This weekend, I’m offering Accidental Evil for free. It’s one of my favorite books because it examines how different families react to a crisis. Most of them figure out what’s important, and they focus on that. It takes place in the same vicinity as Migrators and some of the themes are roughly equivalent. Later, I revisited those places and people with Until the End. I enjoy bringing together stories. How would you live your life several years after you survived a paranormal trauma? I imagine those altered lives in these books.
I hope you like it, and I hope you’re warm and dry. Outside, the rain is mixed with heavy flakes of snow already. I need to make sure there are fresh batteries in my headlamp.
