(+2 insets) (looks best at full size on black!) (And please forgive me for the length of this entry, I had nothing to do for hours!)

I planned to get up at about 7:15am this morning, but just as Pumpkin and I were beginning our morning conversation of happy chortling and contact calls, the house power flickered. This caused several devices around the room to beep in surprise and more importantly, the overhead lights automatically turned on.

BLASTING RAYS FROM A THOUSAND SUNS BURNED THROUGH MY EYELIDS. Inside my head I screamed, "OMG MAKE IT STOP!!" The power went off. The lights went out and I relaxed in utter relief. A few seconds later, the power flickered again, the overheads went on and devices beeped at me. Pumpkin gronked at the unfamiliar sounds. I shielded my eyes with a hand and grumbled about the stupidity of lights that automatically turn on with power fluctuations.

After going on and off for a moment, the power officially died. That's when our bedroom UPS* decided to speak up *(uninterruptable power supply). It's hooked up to our tv and dvd player. Yelling at me in loud, plaintive beeps in series of three, it screamed, "I don't have enough power to keep running these devices!" And that, quite frankly, made me very annoyed. How can a UPS which is less than a year old, no longer holding a charge in its battery?

"BEEEEP-BEEEEEP-BEEEEEP!!!" I lay there in bed, mentally glaring at the stupid UPS. We have more problems with those dumb things. In the game room--which is down the hall, around the corner, down the short hall and hang a left into the room—I could hear another trio of bleating beeps...make that two pairs of triple beeps...both of our computers are plugged into their own UPS, and they were loudly objecting to the loss of power too.

Soon Steve had the UPS's in the game room turned off along with the computers. We decided to go back to sleep for a while in hopes that the power would be back on soon. Thoughts of no espresso had us drifting away like innocent babes. Not that the feathered alarm clock cared. Pumpkin peeped at me every 15 minutes for the next hour until I really couldn't pretend to sleep anymore.

Thankfully our hot water heater is large so I had a lovely shower and Pumpkin didn't seeme to mind the dim room, lit only by the light coming through the blinds in the bathroom. Once downstairs I realized that I neglected to cut up Pumpkin's veggies and fruits yesterday so I busied myself with that task while getting Molly's breakfast ready. Soon Pumpkin was set up in her day cage, the room bright with light coming in through the many windows.

Steve readied our little generator with four intentions: power to our Monitor heater, to Pumpkin's floor heater near her cage, to the music ipod so Pumpkin has her Sarah Brightman/Annie Lennox playlist to listen to, and of course to the espresso machine! I went out on my walk and when I got back, Pumpkin was comfortable and rockin' out to her tunes, the house was warming up and the espresso machine was ready to go! HUZZAH!

As I sit here typing away on my laptop, the power is supposed to be back on within ten minutes but who knows? We've got our fingers crossed!

Can you see my glowering face as I stare daggers at the time on my laptop? 12:25. The power was supposed to be back on at 11. We did get a call from the power company saying that the updated approximation was 12:30. *drums fingers on the arm chair*

Steve is off to get our two propane tanks filled. We had the brilliant idea to cook breakfast in our new RV! GREAT PLAN!! We busied ourselves with the gathering of 4 eggies, bacon, seasoning, a pan, plates and utensils and marched over to our "home away from home". Steve was hoping that there would be enough propane to cook our food but alas...though he got it fired up, the flame soon dimmed and spluttered out. He checked the propane. Yep. Empty. Well, it was a fine idea. We marched back over to the house, Steve gathered the propane containers and headed out to the local gas station. We need the tanks filled anyway, and his hope is that by the time he returns the power will be back on.

He's back, it's 12:36 and nope...no power yet. *sigh* On top of that, there was no power at the gas station or anywhere for many miles in all directions. Thus, he wasn't able to get any propane either! ARGH!

Well, at about 2pm we finally got our power back…what an ordeal! :D

After all of the fuss of the day, I think it would be very nice to post a picture of a beautiful flower to look at. I ask you: what's better than sharing another dahlia from San Francisco's Conservatory of Flower dahlia exhibit? The only problem is choosing which to post…they all yell and scream for attention, the high-falutin' divas! Well, since they wouldn't stop jumping up and down, I picked the first one in my finished folder: she with the ever-so-fancy hair and amazing graduated colors of yellow, peach and orange. Totally outrageous beauty! Along with that picture I'm including two more: one of them is a group of breathtaking peachy-orange dahlias who are all trying to shove in front of each other to get a better position in front of my camera…CALM DOWN LADIES! You're ALL beautiful! The other picture is a rear view of a glowing, hot pink dahlia who's much too lovely to be bothered with the lime light! (I cannot help but assign personas to these flowers, they have so much pomp and character!)

Pam, do you have any favorite flowers other than your beloved Snow Drops? I would understand if you can't choose one, since well, that's how I feel too…but I am curious if you do! I went to your photo stream and picked out a picture that made my heart swoon…and I fell upon your ridiculously gorgeous collage of bearded iris! I remember seeing that picture years ago and I was so smitten by the colors of your flowers that I put them in order of favorite so I had an excuse to stare at them and decide which I liked better. They are truly incredible! Here's hoping that you guys are doing well and that your heart is soaring on the warm winds of affection I am sending your way! *BIG HUGGGSSSS*!!!

Explored on 3/13/19, highest placement, #1.