The Polar Express - Part 3

This afternoon, we actually got power back for several hours, and after dealing with Troy all day, my wife needed a break. So, I told Troy that we’d go upstairs and play. But when we got up there, I took a detour to my office to check in at work. With the revolving outages, I haven’t been able to get much done, so I wanted to see if there were any fires to put out. While I was dealing with the only issue that was directed toward me, Troy came into my office and said, “Play! Dada, play!” I had to laugh, because he called me on my crap. I had told him we’d play, and then I didn’t immediately do it. So, he let me know that my priorities were screwed up!

While we were playing upstairs, my wife decided to bake some cookies. She’d had everything ready, so as soon as the power came back on, she could shove them in the oven. Turned out that there wasn’t a rush, since it didn’t go off again at the usual time. I think baking made her feel like things were a little more normal again. I also think she was craving some cookies!

I also managed to track down someone who would deliver firewood to our house. He was ridiculously over-priced, but it’s hard to be picky when you’re desperate. He unloaded it on our driveway this evening, so I spent a couple of hours hauling a rick of firewood to our backyard and stacking it so we could easily get to it. The exertion and exercise felt wonderful if exhausting. But now we have plenty of wood to burn away the days and nights...just in time for the weather to start warming up!

Since I was already outside and sufficiently warm, I decided to finish our snowman. At some point, wondering if I was dead in a snow bank somewhere, my wife came looking for me. Finding me working diligently on a snowman in the backyard, she started laughing. I guess it’s not every day you see a grown man building a snowman by himself. She dressed up the baby in his winter gear, and they joined me to play for a bit in the waning light of day.

And lo and behold, the power stayed on. We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and for it to go off again, but maybe the worst is over. We’re definitely making the most of it, doing dishes and laundry and all of the other things that had been backed up all week.