When the Power Goes.....

 We had an absolutely lovely Beach Week.  Babygirl and I managed far over 10,000 steps daily, typically because we were willing to walk a lot in search of the Bacon-topped Hot Donut or the Savory Crepe.  I'm not sure that we got any healthier because of the walking when I look at it in those terms LOL. 

While we were away, our little city had some exciting weather.  Central NY State does not typically see tornadoes. The last documented tornado in our city was in 1998, affecting less than 5 homes if I recall correctly.  

I haven't seen confirmation that what happened in our neighborhood was a tornado, although quite a few were documented over a several-county area that day.  But there is one block of one street 2 blocks from our house that was substantially damaged. There is a lot of damage across the river from us as well.  The power was out for about 22 hours.  The only damage at home was that our porch umbrella snapped off its support pole.

However.  

We had to ditch the entire contents of our fridge and freezer.  So while Babygirl unpacked all of the beach things, I unloaded about 60 pounds of food and put it in the trash.  This included the things we would have used to make our dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Were there things in the freezer that might have been salvageable?  We had no way of knowing what was "refrozen" vs what was "not thawed out in the first place."  The popsicles were two dimensional, clearly refrozen. 

The first rule of food safety for transplant patients is:  "When in doubt, throw it out."  Frankly, I didn't have a lot of doubt about it, but I really felt sad throwing out steak and scallops.  And bacon. 

Despite a 5+ hour drive home, and the time spent packing and loading before we left, PLUS the fridge clean-out, I went to Aldi to restock.  We still have some things we need that we typically find elsewhere, but nothing urgent. 

And here is the MASSIVE blessing of my life:

Despite a tough year emotionally and financially, I have the wherewithall to have a lovely vacation in a beautiful place, with enough money and energy left over to fully replace what very little we lost.  

DeeDee