I applaud both of you! Patty, those storms headed your way are here now and my power has been out since mid-morning. I just paired a portable Bluetooth keyboard with my phone to check in here since the Wifi and Internet are out. Data for a little while this afternoon won't hurt my phone bill.

Charmion, I did wince a little but walked away from one of those "core pieces" this afternoon; I loaded stuff in the SUV and after disconnecting the motor on the garage door was able to open it manually and leave for a few hours. I've parked in the driveway for now but may reverse that move and park indoors in case any hail is headed here. Anyway, I had a wooden antique-ish sewing cabinet from my Mom's house. My brother delivered it or sister mailed it, I don't remember for sure, but it has bounced around here as something from my mom to my daughter. Except she doesn't need it and it stinks like my Mom's house. All of these years later still smells like stale cigarette smoke (I'm pretty sure I wiped it down with a disenfectant when it came into the house). Her house was also mildew musty, and there is a bouquet of that as well. This rain drove off most garage sale folks so upon returning home I stopped Goodwill and gave them a few things I didn't want to take back into the house or ever bother with on Freecycle. So the Goodwill has a bonafide antique for a little while.

I still have my down bags and thermarest pads; I put a stack of the pads in my closet 3 years ago during our 4 day sub-freezing outage and slept in the down bag. Now I have a cotton sleeping bag that my daughter doesn't need (that I took to a commercial laundromat last fall) to use if such an even happens again. Down was ok but the mummy bags are harder to get in and out of and in the house the dacron bag is sufficient.

I made $7 at the sale today and came home with some stuff my friend had set aside for me, so I guess I came out ahead. My feet are still wet and without power I had a bowl of cereal for lunch and put the milk back in the fridge quickly. The neighbors went out for lunch but when they get back home they'll run a line across the fence from their generator. The power company predicts repairs by 8pm.

There is a tinny-sounding transistor radio playing the classical station (Mendelssohn) and I have a Stanley power pack to run a small lamp for now. So many electronic things like the phone, tablet (I would use the phone as the hot spot for it) and keyboard let me have a little connectivity. I have a couple of battery packs for charging if necessary and regular D-cell batteries for a boombox if I want to fool with it. I tested the little Sterno stove this morning (a robust steel frame from Coghlan's that is far better to the little aluminum ring that fit on a can that I used during the big outage.) I'll run my electric Kettle on the Stanley battery and brew some tea. I have a good butane Coleman stove now and lots of flashlights around the house. The laptop in the kitchen could work on the phone Hotspot. I can go sit in the car and do all sorts of electronic things, or go to a friend's house where the power is on. When the generator is set up I think I'll move the sewing machine into the kitchen and do some quilt blocks from the crumb basket.

The generator just started up so I tossed the male end of the line over the back fence and ran the female end in here. I also muscled the garage door open and parked the SUV inside. Looks like a quiet afternoon except for the dull roar of the gas generator.