Kirkland, Fully Illuminated At Last!

Looks like overnight, PSE was finally able to connect all the dots required to bring Kirkland fully up and energized! I was so excited that I went to McDonald's for an Egg McMuffin! But, to my dismay, there was a sign on the door stating they won't open until tomorrow. :( I've never had many good experiences with that particular Mikey D's, the management there is horrible. If Carrilon Point's Starbucks can get up and running over night, they should too! But oh, well! I'm sure there's a good reason. I was able to get my grande reduced-fat eggnog latte! :-) (gotta be reduced to delude the nog a tad. I love the nog, but but it's quite overwhelming at full strength! lol)

Anyway, some how or another, I was in the lucky bunch in Moss Bay that got power back after only 12 hours. So I can't fully comment on just how terrible it must have been for the homes that were without power since Thursday night and Friday morning. But I did read this blog post from a local Kirkland blogger:

It feels SO good to be WARM again!
We've been in the dark since Thursday night just like much of the million other people around the Seattle area. It makes me realize how much we take for granted. It took me two days of flicking on light switches before I remembered they weren't going to work. For the first day and a half it was kind of fun- roughing it- sharing meals (ie emptying the rotting food from the fridge) with neighbors that we never get to spend enough time with normally. By the third night we couldn't take the flashlights and shivering anymore and sacked out at my sister's toasty condo in Totem Lake, which oddly/luckily had power restored.

I know there are many people out there that still don't have power. Our friends in Woodinville aren't expecting service until at least Thursday! But then I think-- how must the Katrina victims have felt when their desperately needed help didn't arrive? Huh. Reality.

Other fleeing thoughts: How come when it was so cold I could sleep so much? I wonder if this is some type of bear hibernation phenomenon or just the fact that there wasn't much else to do. Speaking of not much to do- here's an up-side: our neighbor's teenage son had a bunch of friends over that were all playing the board game "Risk" at their kitchen table. His mom told me there was quite a bit of dust on that game before the power (and Xbox) went out last week. Oh, and why was MY mom calling me 6 times a day with her survival techniques? "Remember when you were a Girl Scout..." UGH.

Then there is the grocery store- we had to throw out everything from our fridge and freezer which was a much needed exercise. There were bags of vegetables from 2005 in there, and under the bottom-most drawer was a delightful surprise of 12 french fries and 3 Otter Pops that my kids have been asking for since July. The re-entry to the world of power is quick, though. Once it's back- wham!- we're all racing again in our scurried little lives. Sent Steve to QFC on Sunday to re-stock the fridge for my 3 little Hoovers. He was feeling guilty as his heeping cart filled with brown sugar and marshmallows for holiday baking later in the week was in front of a woman in line with batteries and fresh (finally!) milk and some beef jerky.

And this brings me back to Kirkland. Look at all of our retail businesses that were shut for days the week before Christmas! This is their busiest time of year, so the timing couldn't be worse for them to be losing sales. The Nordstroms of the world will survive this, but losing 3 days of pre-holiday shoppers has a big impact on the small shops of Kirkland. So, if you're behind on your shopping like I am, be sure to stay close to home and support your local businesses. We want to make sure they're here next Christmas!

And for those of you still waiting for the power to come on- hang in there and accept the warmth and generosity of others that seems to abound in situations like these. And whatever you do, don't bring your generator or gas grill inside. And if you need any other tips, you can call my mom. ~Janis

SOURCE:
http://kirklandweblog.typepad.com/kirkland_weblog/2006/12/it_feels_so_goo.html