Home at Last with a Severe Case of Baby Withdrawal

Ann H GabhartAnn's Posts, One Writer's Journal

I’m back in Kentucky. There’s still snow and ice here. In WV there was just snow. But that nice layer of ice we got first way back last week is frozen hard on the ground here in Kentucky. The roads aren’t too bad unless you get off the main roads. You know, like on the road to my house, but our road is so much better than it was when I left last Friday that I felt like the thaw had come. Actually the thaw is supposed to come this weekend and next week. Tonight it’s supposed to get down to five degrees and by Monday be in the sixties. That’s Kentucky weather for you. But let me tell you, we’re going to be glad to see the ice melt.

A lot of people still don’t have electricity, but some are getting back on line in our county. The western part of the state is suffering the most because so many of the poles broke down and the trucks can’t get to them due to bad conditions to try to replace them and restring the wires.

Bobbi who has some great blogs herself (Bobbi’s Book Nook for one) and often comments on mine said she didn’t think she wanted to go back to the time before electricity. Me either. Everything had to be harder then. Think about it. You had to heat every bit of water you needed to wash something. On a woodstove or over an open fire. No pumps to send your water to your tap. (The Shakers were way ahead of their times with running water to their houses back in the eighteen hundreds.) No lights to read great books by at night. No curling irons to keep your hair looking good. Sometimes it’s those little things we miss the most.

What did you have to do without that you missed the most? I missed hot water for my cup of tea. Thank goodness Darrell found some wood and we fired up the woodstove in the basement and I had my teakettle singing in no time. Of course I guess what everybody missed the most was heat if they depended on electricity to generate it. Even gas furnaces usually have electrical fans.

I had a great time with the twin grandbabies. They took turns crying or being fussy so I pretty much had a baby in my arms five days straight throughout the daylight hours and quite a few of the night ones. But you know, when they grinned at me, I was ready to hold them a little longer. Actually I thought they were really sweet to take turns. Hope they keep that up as they get older. They will be six months old next Wednesday. I should have told their Mom and Dad that the spoiling was part of the deal and that I’m not taking calls for three days just in case they’re finding out that the babies are crying every time somebody sets them down. 😉 For sure, I’m going to have a severe case of baby withdrawal. But I need to get back to work. And I’m ready to do that too. I’m supposed to get the galleys for The Believer the end of the week. The copy editor promises I won’t have to work too hard on whatever she thinks needs improving. I’m hoping she’s right.

Talk to all of you Sunday.