We're green here with a temperature of 5 C. Sort of the usual fare for the season finally. We're suppossed to get winds of up to 80 kms today and I've got my fingers crossed that I'll still be able to cook Christmas dinner tomorrow for the family, without resorting to doing it outside on the BBQ in the rain and eating by candlelight. I'm sick of power outages.

About 10 days ago we got hit hard in our area with sustained winds of 158 km and higher gusts off the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We finally got our power back Wednesday after almost a week of lugging firewood and buckets of water. It was exhausting and we're finally considering getting a generator. The older I get the harder it is to cope with this kind of stuff and still manage a smile.

Twice in less than a month without power and water that drags into days frays the nerves as well as the muscles. This is the first time in over 30 years that I have actually been very scared. Now I know what is meant by wind sounding like a freight train. The cracking and whumping of falling trees were an added bonus.

We fared better than some of our neighbours though, no damage to the house, only an outbuilding and a couple of garden sheds.

Unfortunately though, in the aftermath, the tree service managed to fall a tree on our own power lines, bent our mast in two and ripped our power supply off the house as well as phone and cable. Good thing the power was still out at the road because, as well as smashed equipment and a bit of damage to the house, there were electrical lines everywhere.

On the positive side we have enough downed trees to keep us in firewood for at least 4 or 5 years and at least with this last storm the temperature didn't dip to -12C.

Enough of my whining, were all safe and sound here and except for sore backs, no one was hurt. It could have been way worse.....and the pony didn't die from drinking the water I lugged to him from the hot tub.

Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year!