Chuck's Diary Entry: March 10, 2017

Dear Diary,

At 10:30 a.m. today, is the beginning of Day 3 without electricity at Eastside Cats.  To recap, the backyard neighbor's tree fell across the alley, to land on the power lines.  This caused every house on the block (both sides) to lose electricity, and there was some sparking and weird flashing lights that scared me and Angel to bits.  The Human called The Hubby went into the area-that-cats-do-not-go and threw the switch to make sure nothing burned out while the wind whipped that fallen tree back and forth.  Actually, as long as I get my meals and snuggles, I don't really need this thing called electricity.

Tree laying on the power lines

The tree has broken the fence!

Tree and lines are rubbing on our barn

The Human called The Mom made all kinds of calls on her cell phone, because the landline is down as well as the cable (no internet, no television).  She sounded very polite, but The Human called The Hubby had curse words to say about the fact that no one was coming out to help.

The Mom put extra blankets on the bed, and The Hubby is keeping pots of water steaming on the gas stove, to make sure we have warmth.  I don't know what Angel is doing, but I'm gonna nap under The Mom's sweater for a couple of days, until this whole rigamarole is over.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Chucky naps under the sweater

Angel on her couch

Down comforter, fleecy blanket, quilt, and flannel sheets

Recent map of power outages

See the two guys back there?  Seeing them
made us excited, but they left when it got dark out

This happened down the street from us; that garage
on the right hand side of the photo is crushed!

The Mom here:
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/03/more_than_615000_customers_wit.html has updated information on the havoc wrought by the March 8 windstorm in Michigan.  Poor Sweetie and Patty O'Malley's cardboard boxes were blown half-way to Canada, so I'll set out new ones for them this weekend.  In addition, their electric warming pad in The Cat Hotel won't be on for this snap of deep cold; I've told them to either snuggle up together OR COME IN THE HOUSE.  Workers and firemen showed up in the alley yesterday; one guy apparently turned OFF the juice, and another set of men looked at the tree and tied more warning tape across.  Then they left, and The Hubby and I felt a bit abandoned.  However, a large section of our town got it's power back right after that, so we know we are at least on the list.  I carted a box full of ground cooked turkey meat for The 'O' Cats to the office, so it's stored in the freezer.  We lose power about twice a year at Eastside Cats, but this is the first time in the cold weather.  The Hubby and I have learned to converse (!) with each other and tell jokes, to keep our spirits up.  Angel apparently loves to sit with us, even when she could hide under covers like Chuck.  She purrs and purrs, and that is good for our dispositions too! There are folks who have it worse than we do, so as long as the barn survives mostly intact, we'll consider ourselves lucky.