I instagrammed a photo yesterday entitled “The Calm Before the Storm.” Though this photo is a different one, I suppose the message remains the same.
There’s a big storm coming. We’ve been deluged with lots of ominous updates and, in the end, who knows exactly how much snow we’re going to get? At least a foot. Maybe two feet. This event will start later today and go on through Wednesday morning.
Yikes.
We made the usual pre-storm trip to the grocery store yesterday and it was packed with shoppers. We always end up buying canned goods that we hopefully never have to eat but want to have on hand if the power goes out, like Spaghetti-Os and canned macaroni and cheese. Bread. Milk. Bottled water. Pie. (That’s not an absolute essential, but Don likes comfort foods in times like these.)
We’ll fill the tub with water since we have a well pump that runs on electricity.
And that, my friends, is about all we can do! I find the time that I spend waiting for it to start the most unsettling. So I’m going to give myself lots of chores to do today. It is what it is. That particular phrase gets a bit over used, but then again, it seems to work for all sorts of situations.
I’m diving into Laura Lippman’s first book in the Tess Monaghan series, which is being reissued. I’m reviewing it next week.
I am on alert for shovel duty in Scout’s mini-corral. That will be the ongoing challenge during the storm; clearing enough space for her to do her business.
That mini-corral, by the way, has been a godsend. I am so glad we built it for her. With all the ice we’ve had this year, the big corral would have been nearly impossible for her to navigate. Even now, the pathway up to the corral is covered in ice. She has adjusted to it rather nicely. We have to keep on top of ice and there have been a few times that we’ve had to salt it like crazy, but she’s safe. That’s the most important thing.
By the way, I do love Instagram. I try to post there once a day. It’s a lot of fun, easy to scroll through when I’m out and about with my iPhone, easy to update. No, I’m not one of those bloggers who prefers Instagram to blogging. Not by a long shot! But I love seeing photos from the people I follow that represent little bits of their daily lives. I usually post photos that I don’t post on the blog, so you’ll get a different take on my life here at MHC. If you’re interested in following me, there is a button at the top of the sidebar (it looks like a camera) that you can click. Or you can click here.
New post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page. I’ve gathered together a list of books that are about books, bookstores and collecting books. Click here.
Happy Monday.
I’m cracking up I didn’t even know you could buy mac&cheese in a can, and I’m so glad Don got the necessary pie, wouldn’t want to be stranded without that. Be safe:)
Mac and cheese in a can sounds absolutely horrible, doesn’t it? But if we have no power….then it might taste awfully good!
“Dodging the storm” is an expression we seem to be using an awful lot this winter. Without any warning, we had sudden torrential freezing rain last Friday. The glare ice made the walk home from work quite the challenge, but I was just thankful I wasn’t out with the car. On the up side, Friday’s post brought my daughter the news of early acceptance to law school in the fall. (We broke our no-sugar resolve and celebrated with hot chocolate.)
I hope the storm changes path and passes you by – stay safe!
Congratulations to your daughter, Barbara! What wonderful news!
We just started a no sugar resolve here. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it’s been discontinued until the storm is over.
Our office closed today. After a weekend of running around, I’m glad to be with the pack. Snowing lightly here in the panhandle of WV.
Hang in there, Patricia. Stay safe!
Snow is coming down real fine right now. Just glad we don’t have to go out in it. Yesterday when you were talking about coffee, we had bought a couple of samples that were on sale at the grocery store. My husband had made a pot of the dark roast yesterday and boy was I bouncing off the walls. I checked the package for the name of it and it was Peet’s! Stay safe and warm today and give Scouts hugs for me.
hugs
Yay for Peets! If it’s too strong for you, add some half and half. But I do know that dark roasts aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. Or coffee. Stay safe, Nancy!
Good luck with the storm Claudia! It was snowing like crazy at 3 a.m. when I woke up…when I got up at 5:30 nothing…so I am in the office now. Roads were fine (even the back roads through Valley Forge Park. But it is snowing again and we are forecast to get 10-12″. If it keeps up like this I will most like leave by Noon. Our grocery store was mobbed yesterday too. Stay warm!
Get home safely, Vera. Stay warm and cozy. Let’s pray that everyone’s power stays ON.
I really hope the forecasters are wrong and all this snow will only be a little dusting; here’s hoping! Tell Don that he made my day! When I read that he bought pie, I immediately thought of the movie Michael and went to youtube to find the scene where they are in the diner and talk about pie! I hadn’t thought about that movie in ages! Really liked it!
Stay safe and warm, hope your electric stays on and whatever you do, don’t eat that canned mac and cheese!! They actually make that???
Hugs to you and Don. Pets to Dame Scout :)
Deb
They DO actually make that. The very thought of it makes me a bit queasy! But if we have to eat something, I suppose I could take a few bites!
Claudia, Keeping you in my prayers. I have been watching the forecast. I always worry about the loss of power during bad storms because we too have a well and it takes power to get water. so I keep extra milk cartons full of water . I will burn candles in a jar or dish for safety, if we need lights. Please be careful and know we are thinking of you. xoxo,Susie
We do the same thing here, Susie. Candles are ready. Flashlights have batteries. But hopefully, we won’t need them.
The waiting for the storm to hit is always hard. You sound as ready as you can be! Enjoy reading and keep Scout close!
hugs,
Linda
Will do, Linda. She’s blissfully sleeping away at the moment.
Definitely will follow you on instagram! We have been hearing so much about that storm you are waiting for. Saying a pray for you all that you keep your power, have plenty to eat, books to read and board games to play. I find it handy to make a list of what I wished I had had with me during a storm, so when the next one hits I don’t have to think about what I should be buying, just grab the list and head to the store. Sounds like you got it right. Been through this more than once, huh? One thing we did when we had our dogs is put a cardboard box out by the garage door so we could take the doggies out, remove the box and there was green grass for them to use. They were small and didn’t want to be outside, so they just looked a little put out, but did their thing, back down went the box and in the house we went. And you are so right; the waiting is the worst. Keep busy.
Thanks, Tana. We’re hanging in there at the moment. I see a few flakes falling, but nothing of any substance….yet.
I could go into Instagram without logging in. Loved seeing your photos. You take some fine ones and some of these ARE different from what you put in the blog. Fun! Adorable of Scout nestled in the pillows…
I know it sounds crazy, but I am missing the excitement of getting ready for a Nor’easter! I remember doing the grocery run and buying lobster! It was always on sale before a big storm , the store cooked it for you while you shopped & it was wonderful to eat during the storm. Hope you & Don stay snug & warm!
Never thought about lobster, Debbie! Don went out and bought a newspaper this morning and some scones and milk. I guess he wanted a little treat for the morning of the day of the storm.
I’ve never been in the position of waiting for a snowstorm, but you sound experienced and prepared. Stay busy, safe and warm. Weather is such a freaky and weird natural phenomenon to me…waiting for snow at one side of the US, but sunny and mild on the other.
Amazing the differences in weather throughout the country! Now it’s started to snow a bit – just in the last half hour or so.
Only expecting 3-5 inches here outside of Pittsburgh, just very light snow falling now. I am a winter-lover, so I am snuggled down here watching the multitude of birds at the feeders and about to throw another log on the fire! Hope your power stays on…..I know that’s a huge worry. I’ll be thinking of the 3 of you!
Thank you, Kathy! It’s snowing now, so it has begun. We’ll have to see what happens.
We’ve had more freezing rain and freezing fog this year than snow. I detest snow but the freezing stuff is worse. We’re going to be above 50F today for the first time in months, (predicted anyway). I hope all of the waiting is in vain and the storm misses you completely, just so you don’t have to eat that Mac and cheese!
Blessings,
Betsy
Up until this week, I would have said the same thing about freezing rain. But now the weather has taken a turn and we’re talking about snow and lots of it!
I hope the storm isn’t as bad as it’s predicted to be Claudia. At least Don has that new snow blower if it does get bad, that will be a big help. I know how you feel about the waiting, we live in a double wide mobile home and when there is a hurricane bearing down on us we leave and head for something sturdier till the storm is over. Our oak trees have are huge now and not too far from the house so we are always worried about them falling in a bad storm, their roots don’t go very far into the ground. It’s a beautiful day here in Fl.
I worry about our trees, as well. I’m glad you leave and take shelter elsewhere when there is a hurricane threatening, Janie. Enjoy your beautiful day!
Oh, I hope all the hype about this snowpacolypse is over-blown, but glad to know your are prepped and ready. Canned mac & cheese…… hmmmm. I could do the spaghetti-o’s I think. At least in the snow you can keep your milk and things like jelly & cheese outside in a drift if need be, and have some cereal and pb&j sandwiches for a few meals. It sounds like the wind will be a big issue. Are you in the blizzard warning area at all?
I was looking forward to your post this morning to see how it was going. Glad you are all there together for this storm. I’m sure Don will be firing up the snowblower a few times in the next couple of days! Remember, anyone can make it through the 50-70 degree days…. we Northern women plow through these awful days to come out on the other side!! :-)
No, thank goodness we are not in the blizzard warning area, unless that’s changed in the last few hours. It appears to be south and east of us.
We Northern women are strong, Chris!
I’m kind of missing the excitement of a big storm…does that sound crazy? We got another inch of snow…but it’s not enough. I kind of look forward to the not knowing, the stocking up, the getting of the favorite foods…but I’d have to draw the line at a can of Mac and cheese though! We totally get the pie thing though, that makes perfect sense! Stay warm…enjoy as much as you can…and stay well. Snuggle in!! ;)
Hey, I’m not a fan of the can of mac & cheese, either, but if push comes to shove, we’ll have to make the best of things!
Forgot to tell you this morning that Louise Penny has announced the new title for her next Gamache! It will be The Nature Of The Beast. It’s on her facebook page. Nice thought on a snowy day :)
Hugs
Oh good! I haven’t been over to FB yet today. I’ll check it out, Debbie.
I know what you mean about waiting for the big snowstorm. Living in IL most of my life, I’ve been through plenty of those. We have never had the power go out during one of those storms though, thank goodness. So I guess that’s why I never thought about stocking up on canned foods. I think I’d rather starve than eat something as gross as Spaghettios or canned mac and cheese (didn’t even know there was such a thing!)…I’d probably just open one of my cans of beans instead. ;-) I don’t know about your area, but here in the Chicago area we are good to go after 24-48 hours, at the most. The roads are always cleared in that amount of time. So I guess that’s another reason I don’t worry about having certain food items on-hand. Gallons of water though – yes. And we fill up the tub like you, too as we also have a private well. Stay safe and warm!
Well, our electricity fuels the house. No gas stove. Roads are always cleared fairly quickly, especially since we live on a County road. But if we lose power during this almost 48 hour event, we have to eat. And we have cans of beans, as well!
Been following the storm news on MS-NBC and the Weather Channel this am. Luckily Rochester, at the moment, is not in Juno’s path. We’re far enough away from the Atlantic coast to escape this time. Forecast to get only 1-3 inches between today and tomorrow. Gotta admit, it’s kind of nice to out of it for a change – we usually aren’t. But can definitely commiserate with everyone who is. Hopefully any power outages will be brief, or avoided entirely, since being housebound WITH power could be a pleasant respite for a lot of people. PS – I never knew you could get canned macaroni and cheese – I’ve only seen it in boxes – who knew? If I thought I was going to lose power, I’d be charging my laptop and cell phone, and filling my big thermal carafe with hot coffee right now. I can pop my perishables outside to keep them plenty cold – it’s 16 here right now. Take care and good luck… :>)
If we lose power it will probably be tomorrow, so no carafe today. In fact, we don’t have a big thermal carafe!
I didn’t know there was canned mac and cheese either. Hopefully, I’ll never have to get familiar with it.
Cell phones are charged and will be charged again at the end of the day. Laptops are always charged. And there you go!
I thought about making a pie today for the pending storm.. but I know darn well it will be ME eating most of it, so I thought again and will make banana bread for the guys instead, because that is not as tempting for me. :-) Stay warm and safe –
You too, Karen! Banana bread sounds mighty tasty!
Fingers crossed you don’t lose electricity, but if you do, I hope that you have a little camp stove or something to make coffee. I would find it hard to go without coffee. Keep warm and safe.
No camp stove. I’m afraid I’d have to make Don snow blow everything and go out for some coffee. Or I’d have to make the dreaded instant coffee in cold water, which, now that I think of it would be pretty bad. I need my coffee too!
Stay safe and warm!
Judy
Fingers crossed, dear Judy! Thank you! xoxo
I’m feeling worried for you, as reports about this storm are numerous and forbidding but, of course, you’ve been through big blizzards before. As a non-snow person, forgive ignorance on my part but, in the case of no electrical power, what is your heat source? Heat here is gas but it’s with electrical ignition. Do you have one of those generator things? I have a faint memory, maybe I’m wrong, of you speaking of an oil truck delivery. Please clear it up for me. Maybe I’ll feel better. And, yes, dog mini-corral; smart thinking for dear Scout. So cold for her little tootsies. I had to put ‘dog shoes’ (booties) on my border-collie mix at one point because she was so allergic to grasses, but it was a disaster; her legs would buckle. And, oh dear, I do recall when briefly living on the Gulf Coast, preparing for hurricanes/tornadoes a little too late after everybody else and being shocked, as an unknowing West Coast-er, to go to the stores and find shelf after shelf emptied, with no water, batteries or other preparatory foods/supplies.
No heat source if the power goes out. Oil heat but the boiler is electric. No generator, simply because they are very expensive and we can’t afford one.
Didn’t make me feel better for you! And then I got an email update for Susan Branch blog and she says, “Thought I better write now, because there’s a storm coming! It just started snowing on the island (Martha’s Vineyard), soft and light, but ‘an unprecedented blizzard is bearing down on the eastern seaboard,’ the TV is saying, ‘heavy, blowing, drifting snow, even thunder snow; a catastrophic, crippling, potentially historic, rapidly-building, MONSTER of a storm, with hurricane-force winds, coastal flooding, and wide-spread power outages (for days if not weeks) that will leave millions stranded in their homes.'” Such a thing, I cannot imagine! Glad to hear you might be slightly out of that more-dangerous snow zone? I’m glad you have quilts! Next big purchase…a generator! You can see from the comments, we’ll all be thinking of you three over the next few days; take good care. Keep us posted if you can.
Susan Branch has a gas stove and fireplaces – lucky duck. We have none of those things. We’re staying positive here at the cottage. It’s snowing now, but the worst of it is supposed to come tonight, overnight and tomorrow.
My husband, Midwest-raised, says that you can’t overlook the power of a candle and the warmth even one candle can generate. I think he said that if you have matches and one candle in a car, it can keep you from freezing in a snowstorm if you’re caught out in the cold with a beached vehicle. Don’t quote me on that! But he did have that very thing happen to him when he was in college and it was scary til he and a friend got rescued after an accident with a snowbank. We have a glass paperweight that he’d bought on that trip. It was so cold in the car that it caused splintering inside the glass. He sometimes looks at that paperweight, over 40 years later, and remembers the experience…which could have gone very wrong.
The problem for candles in my neck ‘o the woods (West Coast) is that we have earthquakes with aftershocks, and toppled-over candles in the absence of electric lights can obviously cause fires. So, we have flashlights but, of course, flashlights don’t provide warmth. I’m blown away with all this talk of snow and ice; keeping warm is the furthest thing from my mind at the moment. I have the central air-conditioning on and it’s 85 degrees (F) in the shade of my yard right now in SoCal. It’s beyond the mind how two coasts can have such extremes of weather.
We got a few more inches here last night and it has started again so heaven knows what the eventual total will be..I’m so hoping that you don’t get as much as the are forecasting for your area..I am really hoping that you don’t have to eat that mac and cheese..lol..Thank goodness for the pie and scones..lol..I do enjoy looking at your Instagram pictures..”It is what it is” reminds me of something my son used to say when he was little..whenever things went wrong or I was having a bad day he would tell me “life is life Mom”..I thought that was very profound for a little guy and I would tell him “you are right buddy..thanks for reminding me”..
Very profound indeed, Nancy – and very wise. He’s absolutely right.
Stay safe and warm, my friend.
Your water pump is electric- but your furnace runs off gas correct? Do you have oil lamps and plenty of candles? I hope so. I worry about those who live in all electric homes. Stay safe and warm I. The cottage .
Oh! The mac and cheese! I saw it on Instagram and had forgotten about the impending bad weather… This post cleared all that up for me. ;)
When it gets rough – have some pie.
Nope. Everything runs off electric. Heating oil is used for the boiler, but it runs on an electrical current.
Will be praying you do not have to eat the Mac and Cheese. I think just eat the pie instead!! Banana Bread suggested above sounds good OR your Christmas coffee cake! Take care all of you.
Christmas coffee cake is too long and involved to make. And I don’t have all the ingredients. And it’s started to snow!
I am so happy that you are in where it is safe and warm, Claudia and I hope it stays that way. I am really getting into Instagram also and I love seeing your photos. xo Laura
Same here! It’s fun to scroll through everyone’s photo updates. A bit more immediate, if you know what I mean. And it gives us another mode of expression for something that we might not blog about, but can certainly highlight on IG.
Be safe… Be warm…
We are in the NE, but not coastal, so ours will be much less, than yours.
Gentle, warm hugs,
Tessa~
Well, we’re not coastal, either. But it looks like the Hudson Valley, where we are, is going to be hit pretty hard…I hope the forecast is wrong!
You take care, as well, Tessa.
I would give just about anything for two feet of beautiful snow. We are having the worst drought! Scary drought!
We were without power for a week once. I missed my computer most of all, but managed without everything else…
Good luck!
Thanks, Michelle. Extremes everywhere, right? Droughts in the west, blizzards and nor’easters in the east!
Did the storm come? Was it bad? We’re supposed to be getting snow again tomorrow.