I promise this blog is not about the weather but, since we were hit with the worst storm in over a decade, I'll just hit a few interesting (or trivial, depending on your mood) items.  Thursday a.m:  Freight train-sounding wind, unrelenting rain -  husband is skeptical that we'll lose power, wife is absolutely certain and begins freezing water in containers just in case.  2:30 p.m:  Husband leaves for work, wife sees him looking alarmed at the woodpile as he pulls out of the driveway.  Wife sees tarp is flapping wildly and precious wood (heat source!!) is getting soaked.  Wife dons rain gear and braves the storm to cover wood - gust of wind throws her into the fence and she hangs on and covers head.  Hears cracking of wood somewhere (a tree?)  Gets wood covered and later discovers that she was hit with 60 mph gust according to wind gauge.  3:30 p.m:  Wind blows off everything covering wood pile, including boards that were holding down tarp - sigh - wife goes out again, gets completely soaked this time.  4:00 p.m:  Out go the lights!  Wife goes into survival mode - throws ice into both refrigerators, sternly warns kids not to open them and everyone looks for flashlights and candles.  Long, dark evening.  Wife prays and works on Christmas cards by candlelight.  Entire town, and even county, out of power.  Freight train-sounding wind laughs at us.  10:45 p.m:  Husband returns, says only lights in town are med facility he was working at, the hospital and the local radio station.  Long night.  Pray for day break.  7:00 a.m:  Husband gets up to buy big bags of ice.  Wife boils water on woodstove (thank you, Lord, for woodstove) and plans day according to what we can do without power.  And then ... 10:30 a.m. POWER RETURNS!  Praise the Lord and thank you!  Now, what do we do with all this ice? 

Our local paper printed the largest headline I've ever seen on a newspaper.  It said, "POWERLESS", referring to, of course, the county being out of power.  But, you know?  I didn't feel powerless - I was praying all evening, night and morning.  Man may feel powerless but God is NEVER powerless.  We can use the power of prayer to not feel powerless and let me tell you, it was a comfort to know that I could talk to God during those scary hours.  The day after the storm turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day, so I went for a walk up and down our hill.  I hadn't been out for several days and it felt great.  I was walking peacefully along when I noticed a rather large flock of starlings gathered around a power pole and stretched across the powerlines.  I slowed down and approached carefully.  It felt just like a scene from "The Birds" (remember that old film).  Any moment now, Alfred Hitchcock, himself, was bound to make a cameo appearance from behind a tree or something.  It was REALLY eerie!  With each step, a few birds would fly away until finally they all took off.  Stupid starlings.  Sorry, I may be a bird watcher, but I don't like starlings.  I had another old film moment today (Sat.)  while I was vacuuming.  There is a scene from the really old film, "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir", where Lucy asks the sea captain (the ghost) about his childhood.  He was raised by his grandmother and he was sure she was glad he left to go to sea because he always got her carpets dirty.  Lucy looks lost in thought and he asks her what she's thinking.  She says, "I'm thinking of how lonely your grandmother must have been, with her clean carpets".  Something to remember the next time you sigh and, again, sweep up the dirt your precious darlings have tracked in from their adventures outside.  Believe it or not, someday we'll miss cleaning up those muddy tracks!