Ah, the thaw, the wet, the mud...

We still have a lot of people without power. But the crews are still working nonstop, including people who came from North Carolina and Virginia. We are beginning to wonder, however, if some sort of stars aligned--in the past couple of weeks we have had a terrible ice storm, floods, a factory explosion, and most recently, a tornado that hit over the weekend in one of the other counties.

I talked to one of my friends, whom I game with, briefly yesterday. She was sick from having no power for days. They have heat, etc. now, but she sounded awful. Most of my coworkers are back in their homes now, but one woman I talked to lost had a surge go through when her power was restored. The fax machine's melted, and various appliances may be as well. So they're still living with relatives. Strangest story of the Storm of '03? Another friend, who went with her husband and cats from a house with no power, phone, gas, etc. over to her sister-in-law's. Then the power there went out. They tried to make the most of it by building a fire, but apparently there was ice or some other blockage, with a lot of smoke coming back inside. She got pretty sick from the smoke--they gave her oxygen the next morning. They went on to a friend's house after unsuccessfully trying to get her sister-in-law to leave. Turns out they may have had carbon monoxide poisioning. They couldn't go back into their house because when the heat came back on there was a gas leak that at first couldn't be found, then turned out to be in a neighbour's yard near the intake for their heater, so a lot of CO wound up in their house. Fortunately Columbia Gas was great--she had a special number that rang right into the place she needed to stay in contact with and they aired out her house and checked the CO levels. Meanwhile, she'd finally gotten a shower after three days and had a warm place to sleep and eat. The only problem, really, was that in grabbing things initially from the house (and not thinking they wouldn't be allowed to return) she pulled out plenty of pairs of undwear for her husband but only had two for herself--the highly uncomfortable "special" Valentine's Day lingerie she'd had with her when they'd first come back after the ice storm, and one other. She complained about the tight fit--apparently she'd washed it and it shrank--I told her that she needed to stop by Wal-mart and get some more comfy underwear. She went home to her friend's to find that the woman's Sheltie had torn her only other pair (which was dirty) to shreds and left a little "bread-crumb" trail of cotton about. It seemed a perfect ending to a very odd week. So, needless to say, she went and got some bras and panties. :) Next day they finally were able to go back to their own house and she slept the best she had in awhile. She managed to retrieve her cats from yet another relative's house, and they are all reunited and happy. The sister-in-law was eventually persuaded to move before too much lasting damage could be done to her health. So far, so good.

It's amazing, really, that as bad as everything was no one (knock on wood) died or had any major injuries. And in typical weird Kentucky weather, we warmed up first to the 40s and then to the 50s briefly, melting the rest of the ice. The trees just all sprang up. The next day we had snow, but it was a wet one of little real account. No more ice, thankfully. It's even a little sunny right now, which I think will send people's spirits up. I know it's helping with mine.

Friday night I played Scrabble over at Zabet's. She and her hubby had gotten their tax refund in and splurged on a full-sized board, so we don't have to worry about the zingers popping out of the plastic case on my travel version. I did my laundry, and we went to Kroger's and Liquor Barn. I needed to get some libation wine, but I also found a heather ale and some mead. Zabet was telling me in all seriousness that since I tend to like stout I'd probably like something else better when I pointed out that I wasn't actually intending to drink it. I thought it would be perfect for Celtic libations. She grinned shook her head and said something, like, "Oh, sorry, to think I might expect you to drink it!" Actually, I do intend to try it. I don't know what magical formula they managed to dream up, but historically heather ale was brewed from heather flowers--with no hops. Since I think it's the hops that I tend to dislike in standard beers, it may actually suit my tastes quite well. I'm going to save the mead for Bealtane, but I know I like mead. :) It's one of the few alcohols I do care for. This is made in Britain and has some spices to be mixed in.

I don't know if it was because of the impending thunderstorms or just getting out for the first time in nearly a week, but I couldn't go to sleep Friday until about 5 am. I just felt energised. I cleaned out my refrigerator and put in a new video card for the computer, then sat down for awhile playing Morrowind, which required that card. A coworker had given me the game. It's a little trickier to move around than with Daggerfall, its predecessor. But still, I'm hooked.

Saturday I finally was able to get my tofu fix. I'd been having cravings. I went to Bangkok House and had spring rolls, fried tofu, and tofu pad tai. Yummy!!!!! Saturday night I finished listening to David Suchet reading Agatha Christie's "Evil Under the Sun" and got some rest.

Sunday I spent cleaning and playing Morrowind. At one point I gave myself a tremendous asthma attack using some air freshener spray that someone had given me from Pier 1. She hadn't cared for the scent. It's strong, but I didn't mind it too much. However, I didn't realise it had petroleum distillates and hydroflurocarbons. It tended to make me a little tight--I've used it several times. I don't know why this was worse--I didn't spray that much. But even after taking my albuterol I couldn't breathe well enough to talk. I just wheezed. I went ahead and laid down with the CPAP machine on, thinking that at least I'd have some filtered air. That helped, although the histimine reaction had blocked one side of my nose and my eyes just ran and ran. Needless to say, after I did that for a little over an hour and finally felt like I wasn't just going to die, I got up, threw the spray in the trash, and then went on to sleep. I don't think they let you into heaven if you aphyxiate yourself with air freshener. :)

Anyway, there's my exciting life for you.