Wind

Maya had a half day of school so I picked her up and brought her here. A bit tall for the rocking goldfish

Before picking her up, I visited my favorite second hand store. They had a fancy Asian screen similar to the one in my living room for $250. For $35, they had this cute one I am using to subdivide my basement

the other side of the screen

Maya has never had a hair cut. Her fro is growing

looks even bigger from behind. Naomi just puts it in a bun. On the weekends, various aunts braid it.

Before the gale force wind started around 10 am yesterday, while the winds were still less than 30 mph (later steady winds at 60 mph wreaking all kinds of havoc with even stronger gusts) I was able to run in the forest with the trees that broke the wind somewhat. Tough in my neighborhood where all the houses are very far apart, few trees and nothing to break the wind.

Just as I finished warming up my coffee, I opened the refrigerator for cream. Dark inside. The power had just gone off and the winds had only just started. As our pump is electric, power outages mean no water too. I brushed my teeth with seltzer water. Opening the garage door manually  is a two person operation. Our door is twice as heavy as the one in the old house.

Wednesday is garbage day. I had uprighted the garbage can several times already. As the truck was coming, I held it upright and a gust of wind blew the lid hard onto my forehead. Ouch. Other people's cans were rolling all over the street.

So lots of power outages though ours came back on after an hour. Stoplights were out; power lines blocked the road. The main road we live off of is blocked heading west. I went down a south bound major road today and found that blocked too. The outage map quickly went off line. Some people won't get their power back until Sunday. And we will have a record low tonight so fun for them. As Naomi and thus Maya had no power, they spent the night with us. About third of the local schools have no power so they were cancelled. Maya's school was open though. We lost some shingles. As we looked out the window yesterday afternoon (Maya was looking at rainbows my beveled glass was creating on he floor), we see the neighbor's yard suddenly burst into flames (prevailing wind blowing our way). WTF? They had a fire extinguisher that quickly stopped the flames but we remain puzzled to its cause.

The subject of our Survivors cooking class last night was flavonoids; the various pigments found mainly in fruits and vegetables, the more colorful the better. High consumption of them is linked to lower obesity and cancer but this could be because they are contained in lower calorie food. So a salad with all kinds of color due to spinach, blueberries, pomegranates, avocados, apples and blackberries. It had goat cheese on it and a citrusy dressing. Quite tasty. We had kale and bean soup too and for dessert brownies made of carob and black beans, which tasted better than it sounds. A fun time. My friend was too sick to attend. I made friends with another breast cancer survivor. She would not eat any of the dishes because they would interfere with her food plan even though the foods all were fairly low calorie. In order to prevent obesity, she once weighed 75 pounds more, for 30 years she has stuck to a very low calorie regimen. 30 years sounds like a long time to me for self deprivation. Even though I have been on my diet for 5 months, my instructor noticed for the first time, I had lost some weight. She assumed it all came off in the last month. Nope, only about 8 pounds of it did. Rumor had it that the freeway I was going to take home was blocked by semi trucks that had blown over so back to the backroads, where downed powerlines would make me back track.

Finally all was quiet this morning but it will be a while before all the damage is repaired. I went to a water aerobic class with an ex-colleague. In the locker room, I ran into  a woman whose son played soccer with Josh in high school. My friend told her how much thinner I am now but sadly I am much heavier now than when the soccer mom last saw me. She never saw me fat. We jumped up and down for an hour to Beyounce with some young dude barking orders at the edge of the pool. I got some sort of workout as my legs are now sore. Then we sat in a whirlpool for a while in which I didn't have to worry about bubbles overflowing. I scrubbed myself thoroughly to avoid hot tub dermatitis which happened the last time I was in a public hot tub. The gym, which was nice, would be nice to join but is very expensive. Once I turn 65, it is much cheaper.