Used to be, these types of things were adventures and we took it all in stride. Well, we may still be troupers, but now appear to lean toward the whiney side. Came home from Houston to find one of the trees had uprooted itself from the weight of the snow and placed itself directly across the driveway and we still had no power - can't really repeat our conversation at that point seeing as how I try to keep this blog family-friendly. Couldn't get a picture of said tree then because it was too dark...we had to park in the street while Dave cut away enough of it to get the van into the garage...the streets were melted enough to go rescue the car, so when we went to bed last night (again - under the sleeping bag and every blanket in the house and our Kindles and their little lights) at least both vehicles were in the garage. And while snuggling under the blankets is always sweet, we had so much stuff on the bed, we really could hardly move...thank goodness the dog was still at doggy camp. And we were not in the best of moods. The last thing Dave wanted to do after driving five hours was hand-saw a tree in the dark.
After not sleeping well, we did have hot oatmeal for breakfast and I was able to fix a pot of coffee so that did put us in a better mood for the morning. And Dave once again tackled the tree as best he could without his electric-powered chainsaw...
-I helped move limbs off to the side and he got it cut back enough that getting back out in the van wasn't so hazardous...and we went to Wal-Mart and bought another sleeping bag - that way with the two sleeping bags, we won't need all of the blankets if the power doesn't come back on by tonight...and we are now sitting in Panera with free wi-fi and good food and hot chocolate...so, while not the most romantic Valentine's on record, it is steadily improving (I still say it beats the Timing Belt Anniversary...). Of course, we haven't done the refrigerator/freezer clean-out yet...that will be some time this afternoon after we pick up the dog...we just threw towels in front of it and left the house.
My point is that time was, we would have had the driveway clear, the tree cut up, refrigerator cleaned out, thought the time under the blankets was totally awesome and probably taken all the clothes to the laundrymat to be sure that was taken care of as well. Now...our bodies ache, we are sleep-deprived for not-fun reasons, find little humor in the situation and are both slightly short-tempered; almost every dish in the house is dirty and I'm not quite sure how much clean underwear is still in the drawer.
We love our house. We would love it more if it had electricity.
Stay tuned. A good story is bound to come out of this....
It was amazing...great wine, awesome food and I'm sure that somewhere in the several hundred people attending, there were people that the Dallas social scale considers important. All we know is we got to eat food by some of the city's best female chefs - our favorite, Sharon Hage of York Street among them. Sharon was distributing some of the best crab salad on the planet. Another favorite was a squash and corn casserole from the Texas Chefs Association. And in the cork pull, we scored a bottle of chardonney from Cakebread Cellars and a cookbook (Mangiamo: The Sebastiani Family Cookbook by Sylvia Sebastiani).
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