Ode to the Powerless

Between studio clean-up, out-of-town guests, and a last-minute commitment to sub for an indeterminate length, I've not been able to draw, paint, mix my media, create, ponder, read, save the world or blog. So I've pulled out a poem I wrote and included in our 2007 Christmas cards to explain why we sent no cards the previous and infamous December 2006. I was reminded of this because our area still has  several hundred homes without power from serious winds last weekend. We here at 624 were gratefully not one of those affected this time. But we have already paid our dues. Our days of Powerlessness numbered TEN. as explained here:

On fourteen Dec two thousand six
We 3 Molines got in a fix                                         *Bob, Wrigley the Cat, Diane
From winds and rain so fierce and strong
That Northwest WAh had to get along
For days that numbered two...three...four...
The Northwest day, (eight hours, no more),
No heat, no phone, no "You've got mail."
For most, after 4 days, ended the tale.                      Power returned for all but 100 customers.
Not for THIS cold house at six two four.
Day five...day six...the patience wore
As neighbors lit their homes again
Day seven...day eight...still dark and when
We finally left for Illinois white
On 22 Dec in the dead of night                                 Actually, 4:00 pm but may as well have been
We were one of a hundred
Without heat and light
So that's the story behind the fact
And why your mailbox last year lacked
Our greetings and wishes for holiday cheer
A Merry Christmas and Happy New  Year.
But here's our wish for peace, felicity,
Love, and joy, and electricity.                                  
                                                                                             
Power returned to the last 100 homes on Dec. 23 as we discovered when we "called Wrigley" from Illinois and, well, he didn't answer, probably under covers deep, but our answering machine had the juice to answer!

Wrigley spent much of the time  under the blankets