There are a few reasons I didn’t write a letter last week but here’s the story. The remnants of Hurricane Debbie came through on Friday, the 9th. The rain came down in buckets. The lake rose 3 to 4 feet in a matter of hours and our stream became a raging brook. Bean’s ladder that she used to cross the big stream was washed away. It was something.

Meanwhile, Katie and I were cleaning the kitchen getting it ready for the family that were coming in on Monday for their daughter’s wedding. We emptied all the cupboards and drawers, washed everything and then threw out a lot of stuff we didn’t need and put the rest back. A very satisfactory day’s work. That evening, while we were unwinding with a glass of wine, the lights started acting weird and I told John I thought he needed to replace a light bulb. With that the lights went out. Shortly thereafter, a few lights came back on but not all of them. What in the world was going on? I checked the Hydro app and it said that the whole East side of the lake was without power and in fact, a good portion of the townships was without power. We, however, had a little power. Lights in the kitchen, laundry and two bedrooms. Some sockets had one that worked and one that didn’t. The fridge, dishwasher, stove, dryer and the sewer pump did not work, nor did the hot tub. We tried checking all the circuit breakers to no avail. Something must have blown in the circuit board we surmised. Yuck, double yuck. This is not pretty.

I tried reporting the situation to Hydro Quebec but you can’t report a partial electrical problem only a full one. We heard from neighbors that they saw sparks flying out of the transformer at the top of the driveway but most of them had electricity. It turned out my brother’s house was in the same boat which made me feel a little better but not much. His sewer pump didn’t work either. We went to bed fully expecting all to be fine in the morning. It wasn’t.

So, call out the support team. We have a generator which I traded my mother for (that’s another story) back during the ice storm of 2015 or 2016. It works only on the sewer pump as it isn’t very big but it is useful. We have to pump up 80 feet to the town sewer line and we can’t use any water or bathrooms at all or it will cause an unpleasant situation in the laundry room. Doug, our most favorite handyman, came over to help. The generator started right up after so many years just sitting in the garage. It only had a little gas in it but enough to empty the holding tank temporarily. John had to drive to the states to get more gas as none of the gas stations around us had electricity.

Still no electricity. Our electrician, Andrew, came over and checked things to see if the problem was in our house versus being a Hydro problem and he confirmed that it was a Hydro issue. Now, if we could only convince Hydro that we had a problem. They just didn’t want to believe us because they could see some electricity was getting into the house. Many phone calls and hours later they believe us but by now it was Saturday and still no electricity. I had enough. A family looking forward to a wedding were scheduled to move in on Monday and at this point we didn’t have any electricity and we didn’t have a sewer pump. I put in a call to the people who repair the pump but they weren’t working on the weekend. We discovered while running the generator, that the pump wouldn’t go off but at least it worked.

By Saturday afternoon I knew I had to get out of there. The house was as clean as I could get it and I didn’t need the dogs to get it messed up again. Katie and I packed up both cars and took off for New Hampshire. This was 2:30pm on Saturday. Still no electricity and no sign of help. I spent all day Sunday going back and forth with the folks up in Canada hoping that something would happen to improve the situation. I was ready to give up. But…good news was on the horizon. By 5:30pm Sunday night 5 Hydro trucks showed up at the top of our driveway. Hope was there. I went to bed Sunday night feeling a little bit better and a little hopeful.

When I woke up on Monday morning, I discovered that the electricity didn’t come back on until 12:45am Monday morning. So problem number one was solved. The folks who were moving in on Monday were kept advised as this was going on. They actually got the house on Sunday and were able to move in some of their supplies. They weren’t worried about the sewer issue because they could plug the pump in and then unplug it when it had done its job. Monday we put in another call for the repair and were not promised a Monday repair but they would try. As it turned out, I didn’t find out until Wednesday, that the pump was actually fixed on Monday and the people in the house were happily enjoying family and wedding preparations. Whew!

So that is why I escaped from Canada. Probably the most tense situation I have been in for quite a long time.

Walk with my Sister and Brother

At least once a summer my siblings and I try to go for a hike together. We managed to get that in on Wednesday the 7th. It was a beautiful day so we did a good hike along the stream with four dogs as my sister brought her son’s dog Archie along too. The dogs loved it and we did too. Not very good at taking selfies but we gave it a try.

Jack and Libby drove home from camp on the Saturday I was having my melt-down in Canada. I was so glad to see them Sunday morning. Libby had to leave early on Tuesday to go back to Colorado College so we managed to get a family picture prior to departure. Lots of laughs as we tried to take the picture but at least we got it. Below is the picture we took with Margot’s family before they left.

John’s hibiscus is blooming finally and the tomatoes are doing very well. It is good to be home.