Word Count: 518<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Day #4 of the Great October Snowstorm over New England and our state\u2019s still only halfway through restoring electricity for nearly a million customers in the cold dark. My neighbor\u2019s been over twice for my one-pan version of an egg McMuffin and a spaghetti dinner. I\u2019m melting snow for water to flush toilets and wash dishes and one-bowl whore-baths we\u2019re taking. It takes about an hour to gather and melt enough snow on our propane kitchen stove to flush the tank. She\u2019s wanting more coffee. She\u2019s used to Kuerig; I serve blue enameled campfire perk.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s complaining of the cold though she has a propane fireplace she can warm herself by. Then I notice, as she tells me our unheated house is warmer than hers, that she\u2019s layered like an artichoke and yet wears a dress and no socks. She\u2019s hinted, we\u2019ve offered, to let her stay overnight here with us. No heat, but company and hot meals and campfire style coffee. She complains of two flattened by the snowstorm bushes. She hasn\u2019t noticed our huge maple tree in the front yard split in half.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a generator at her house that she wonders if we could start up. She\u2019s assured us her paid handyman got it ready and running a month ago prior to a hurricane. We shovel a path to the generator. My husband pulls it out and checks all the connections and dials and notes one thing that shouldn\u2019t have been left as it was. He pulls and pulls and pulls but it won\u2019t start. He sprays under the filter with starting fluid. It won\u2019t run. He says it won\u2019t run while she\u2019s subtly telling me how the hired man \u201cpersevered, wouldn\u2019t give up.\u201d We finally give up and call her handyman who says yeah, he\u2019ll come by, but he\u2019d gotten it started with a battery pack. He comes by. He can\u2019t start it.<\/p>\n

Her daughter hasn\u2019t called to check up on her at all. She lives 45 minutes away. The neighbor doesn\u2019t call her either and I\u2019m wondering why. Eventually they do come down and pick up the food the neighbor was making for a party. They pack up the food, leaving my neighbor behind.<\/p>\n

She calls to tell me she\u2019s staying at a friend\u2019s house, a lady who also lives alone but has an operating generator. She calls the next day to tell me she\u2019s stopped by her house and the phone works and she\u2019s going back to her friend\u2019s house to stay. Funny, she never asked about us.<\/p>\n

In the dark dawn of Day #5 I stand outside looking up at the stars. There\u2019s a sharp beeping sound that cuts into the silence. My neighbor\u2019s carbon monoxide detector she put outside on her porch because she couldn\u2019t stand listening to it inside and didn\u2019t take out the battery. She\u2019s gone and can\u2019t hear it from her friend\u2019s house, warm and snuggly and asleep. The rest of us listen to the constant beep and I\u2019ll have to remember to go over and shut the one working damn thing off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Word Count: 518 It\u2019s Day #4 of the Great October Snowstorm over New England and our state\u2019s still only halfway through restoring electricity for nearly a million customers in the cold dark. My neighbor\u2019s been over twice for my one-pan … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[23],"class_list":["post-645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mainstream","tag-mainstream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=645"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":880,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645\/revisions\/880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}