Except it wasn't the end! One day they remembered the blog, and Victoria decided that she should try to write in it again. So here it goes:
If you're a Maritimer, I'm sure you may have noticed on Facebook, the radio, television, newspapers, any type of social media, in the grocery store, etc etc.....a storm's a brewin'. I enjoy a good storm. I love cozying up in my bed, layers of blankets wrapped around (with various textures of course, you've gotta have a bit of wool, a bit of chenille, some cotton...you know, make sure you cover your basics), books piled on the floor, a never ending cup of coffee, a specially created playlist loaded on the laptop and a dog sprawled across my feet. I've spent quite a few days in this state over the winter, watching the snow drifts climb higher and higher up the front of our house. I don't mind the snow, as long as I'm cozy and do not have to go outside.
And this house...you guys, this house was made for storm days. The 500 porches make it seem like some kind of fortress where we can retreat to the inside walls and fire up the wood stove to wait things out. I've got a great view of the neighbourhood and the street from my bedroom window, so I can keep an eye on all the goings-on. Like already I can tell you that the storm is not yet bad enough for people to stop driving hay bales around on the back of their truck. I am sure that farmer was on important storm business. The wind is starting to pick up a little and Wayne has parked his car at the end of the driveway, which I've noticed is part of his bad weather preparations. Wayne seems like the kind of guy who knows what he's doing, so TJ, not wanting to blatantly COPY him, but thinking that maybe he should do something similar, has started parking the car facing out towards the street.
Book stockpiles, blankets and car parking are all part of the normal preparations for any kind of winter weather here, but this particular storm is supposed to be the BIG ONE. Like really big. Despite that we're already 5 days into spring (Mother Nature, flip your calendar already) there's 50+ centimetres on its way, plus another 30-40 cms supposedly coming on Sunday. We're being told to prepare for 72 hours of isolation, just in case. The Island is shutting down. And as much as I enjoy a good storm, this one is making me just a little teensy bit nervous. I think it's mostly the 100km winds that I'm not looking forward to. I felt like maybe I should be doing something to prepare, so I went to the store and bought....vegetables. Spinach and carrots. Let's just say my preparation abilities were pretty rusty. The newspapers suggested to buy batteries, make sure you've got flashlights, canned food, etc. I wasn't 100% on what we would actually use batteries for, aside from flashlights, so I didn't buy any. Is that a storm faux pas? I do have a rather extensive candle collection. Canned soup is not my favourite, so I made soup. I did buy the #stormchips. I made sure Ru had lots of extra food and bought 3 giant jugs of water so she would have clean drinking water just in case. I later realized that there would be an abundance of snow that could be melted for drinking water (survivor skills!) but it was too late, I was not going back to Superstore. I filled the bathtub with water too, just because that's what my dad always did. Is there anything I'm missing? A rotary telephone. I just realized. Does anyone know where I can get a rotary telephone?
I've never had to deal with a major storm before - good timing prevented me from being right in the middle of both Hurricane and White Juan, hightailing it out of Halifax before they hit - but I think we'll be okay. I hope. Maybe. Maybe we'll be okay. I feel like there's a fine line between survival mode and sheer panic in my life, and I'm not entirely sure which side I'll be on once the storm reaches it's peak. If there's power, I'll be sure to update and let everyone know. Until then, I'm going to snuggle back into bed with this little one, who had a natural instinct to take cover:
