Saturday, February 18, 2006

What a night!

There were category 4 hurricane winds recorded n MT Washington last night! We had a rough night too. My grandparents had no power for 13 hours and we lost power for about 6 hours before we were able to leave here. We live in a lake community and there is only one way in or out of here. A huge tree took a couple power lines down and the fire department blocked the road out of here off so no one could leave or get in unless they left their car at the block and snuck through the woods to get home or out of here. We were getting really cold and were afraid our pipes would freeze as well as freeze ourselves so we wanted to leave here. We reserved a room at a local hotel but we soon found out that the fire department would not let us out of here. I called my dad at the Sheriffs department and he called everyone he could to try to get us out of here. (It was not only us but everyone who lives here were trapped. I hope there were no emergencies last night needing medical attention STAT)Anyway, my dad was able to find out that the fire department was leaving the scene at around 11:00pm and if we wanted to risk crossing the block then we could try. Ken went to the block and saw where some lines were down about a 1/4 mile up from the block and he also saw cars going through the block. (Theses were people that did not know what had happened) so Ken came back to the house and said we were going through the block. When we got to the beginning of the block and were almost out of here we saw a whole bunch of cars and trucks lined up and people and their dogs walking around with no clue how to get home as they saw the block as they came into the area. It was just an insane scene. I never saw anything like it. People were panicky and cold. We had called the electric company to see how long it would be before they could shut power to the live lines down around here and they said it would be 24-48 hours before anyone would come out to do that as there were 30,000 people without power in just their company. The other company had approx. 39,000 out.Ken told them this was an emergency as we not only have no power but we were trapped here with no way out. We could deal with the power loss. We thank God that he provided us a way out of here when He did.
We got to the hotel and snuck our dog in. We later found out that dogs were allowed. Good thing as katana barked at someone walking past our door at 6am and we were afraid they would kick us out of the hotel.
We called our house and got our answering machine at 7am so we were happy that the power was back on.
All is well and this is just reassuring my husband that moving to FL is the best thing. Although I do not know why as FL deals with these hurricane force winds on a much more regular basis. I do have to say that they are more prepared for such a thing though. We have way too many trees hugging the power lines, it is no wonder the lines come down all the time.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Windy but beautiful!

Boy New England is always full of surprises! Today and yesterday were absolutely beautiful days with temps in the 40's-50's!I was able to drive with the window down today and I had a door open to let some much wanted fresh air into the house yesterday for an hour or so. Today is also very windy. It started out pouring rain and then there was an electricle storm with some thunder and by the time I got home today it was so windy it felt like the trees were falling on our roof! I saw giant flag poles down with the wood splintered to bits and power was out all over the place. Our power was only out for a couple hours, thankfully. I saw on the news that there were gusts of wind on MT. Washington clocked at 123 mph! Yikes!

I really do love it here. You never know what kind of weather you will get. But, I am sure I will learn to love the south just as much!! :) I can always come home to visit, anyway. :)

Saturday, February 11, 2006

FL plans moving fast!

A bit too fast! Ken was talking to a friend the other day and said that this is exciting but also a bit scary for him as he has never done anything like this.

We are busy tying up loose ends. We paid off our home equity loan and my school loans. Ken is only taking work up until June 1. And we are slowly packing up the house, getting ready to show it.

We got a call from our architect in FL and she said all is set for us to apply for permits in FL. She even offered to do all the footwork down there for us to make it a faster process for us! We told her we would pay her and we are grateful for her generosity to do this for us. We told her we would like to use her as a contact for architectural jobs in SW FL when we need one.

We just found out recently (Front page news in the local paper) that houses on a hill with a lake view (our house, our house!!) are a hot comodity now!! We were thrilled to read this. I guess lake front properties are rare to find now and people that do own them are not letting them go so people with the money to spend are looking to the next best thing, lake view. They want privacy that lake front will not give them and the convenience of being near the lake and still have the view. The paper mentioned that specifically people are looking for the house up on the hill as it is more private and better view. Our house is exactly what people are looking for!! We are thinking of contacting the realtor that was quoted in the article as he said he knows the people who have the money to spend and want these properties. We are so excited about this!!

The kids are doing well. Our son is reading now and our daughter is writing "words" on papers and having daddy and I read them. It is pretty funny. She is not really sure what she is writing and when she is done she will come up to one of us and ask us to tell her what it says. We read it the best we can. Here is an example. "foopy glepptly doooppleeer..." She laughs so hard when we read her "sentences" to her.

It is a slow Saturday but not for long. We are in the process of painting Our sons room and the bathroom today. We got a new toilet for the downstairs bathroom (I know you needed to know that) and we still have to retouch the kitchen wall paint. The house is looking better than ever. I have a ton of flowers I planted in the gardens this past fall. I can't wait until Spring when the flowers bloom and look beautiful and smell great!

We will add updates periodically and when we move we will keep up this blog so that our friends and family can still keep up with us. :)