Friday, Donnie Lee didn't have to work until late so he spent the day with his dad. Don and I went out to eat at our second favorite fish camp - Captain's Cap in Denver. One of our teacher's/friend works there and she was so excited to see Don. He was happy to see her too! Several other school employee's (from other schools) work there too. They all came over to our table at different times to say hello and let us know how they had been praying for us. They were all so happy to see Don. We sat and talked a while and eventually went to WalMart in Lincolnton to pick up some other prescriptions that weren't ready on Thursday. We called it an early night since I had to work on Saturday. Long story short, we had to make up a day of school because of a water line break in January.
Saturday morning I headed to work about 6:45 and all in all it wasn't too bad. The kids were dismissed at 12:00 noon and we were able to leave about 12:30. Don wasn't expecting me until a little after 1:00 so he was just getting dressed when I got home. I went in to help him finish getting dressed and we decided to ride up to the old Turner home place about 5 miles from Lake Lure, NC. It rained on his a lot but we had a good time. We ate supper at the Golden Coral in Hendersonville and saw one of the guys that we knew from the horse auction circuit that we used to travel. It really is a small world. We finished supper and headed home about 6:00. We were about 2 hours from home. Don decided that we would come back I-40. (We had gone up there on NC highways - 2 lane roads.) We no more than got on the interstate when I noticed a sign that said Asheville. I asked Don if I had to come down Black Mountain and he said yes. It was beginning to rain even more and I was getting very nervous. I don't like driving at night or in the rain. Let me add that I hate coming down Black Mountain in the day time and I was about to have a fit. It was definitely not the worse trip down the mountain (Mt. Airy wins that one), but it was a nail biting experience for me. I was a nervous wreck by the time we reached Old Fort. Then I got sleepy. Those of you who know me - I do my best sleeping in the car - driving or not. Don has always done the driving for our family so this is a whole new experience for me anyway. I have slept during most of the trips all of our 24 years together. After a few times of sticking my left hand out the window and letting it get so cold that it hurt and then placing my cold wet hand on my face to help wake me up we finally made it home about 8:00. Kristi came over for a bit and we finally turned in about 11:00.
Sunday, we got up a little later to get ready for church. Don eat grits and I ate cereal for breakfast. I ironed Don's clothes and he got himself dressed while I was getting dressed. We were actually ready early. We left about 10:15 and it wasn't raining when it was time to get Don in the car. When we arrived at church it still wasn't raining. My parents were just in front of us as we arrived and the helped to get Don out of the car and into his wheelchair and into church. By the time I parked the car and got out it was raining again. I was so thankful that it wasn't raining until then. You don't think about those things until you deal with them yourself. Church was having a dinner so we went down to the fellowship hall after church. That was interesting! It was raining and there were stairs to go down so I had to take Don through the soaked grass to miss the steps. When we arrived at the fellowship hall there was no ramp to get Don in the building. Fortunately one of the men backed Don up to the door and pulled him up and into the fellowship hall. I couldn't have done it. We had dinner with a lot of my family. All of my nephews and niece were there except one of them and my parents were there too. It was pouring down the rain when it was time to leave and it was nasty. I went and got the car and pulled in front of the fellowship hall and another man at the church brought Don out to the car. Needless to say Don was soaked this time. We made it home and it had slacked off a bit. We came in and changed clothes and settled in for the evening. Kristi came over about 4:30 but didn't stay long. We were expecting some bad weather here so we watched the news and waited for the snow to start falling. Just before dark it began to snow and then stopped. By 8:00 or so it had snowed enough to cover the ground and was coming down hard. Our power went out shortly before 9:00. Donnie Lee tried to get the generator going while I gathered some flashlights and lit some candles. The gas in the generator had evaporated so Donnie Lee took his 4 wheeler over to a neighbor's on the road behind us to get some gas. He tried for about 1/2 an hour to get the generator started but it just went fire up. We settled in about 10:00 and some friends of Donnie Lee's came over on their 4 wheeler. Donnie Lee was supposed to work early on Monday so he didn't go riding. Kristi and my mom called several times checking on us and my mom sent a text to say that we were out of school on Monday. We settled back down before 11:00 with the candles burning and covered with quilts and blankets. We all slept in the living room, Donnie Lee and Ellie (our Jack Russell) on the floor, Don in his recliner and me on the couch. I woke several times checking on the candles and hoping that the power was back on.
Monday, much to my surprise we woke about daylight to find a winter wonder land outside and almost one inside. The snow was beautiful but the power had not been restored. We put on more clothes and Donnie Lee went out again to try and start the generator. Still no luck. I called the power company to see if we could get an estimated time of repair. They said there were so many outages that they couldn't give us a time frame. We were unable to know how bad it really was since we didn't have the TV or radio. I charged my computer yesterday but had no internet since it is powered through our cable provider and it is wireless. Our principal called about mid morning and we discussed calling the power company back and explaining Don's situation so I did. They explained that they were doing everything possible and hoped to have the power back on before long. But if we needed Don moved to some place with heat we could always call 911. I had almost made up my mind to go to Kristi's or my parents and then it dawned on me that I had no way of getting him into either one of their homes. They both have steps and Kristi has more than my parents. So his suggestion to call EMS was my next only choice if we needed to move him. By this time it was a little after 10:00 and we had seen several power trucks go up and down our road. I sent Donnie Lee to ask them if they could tell us anything. Donnie called back to say that a tree had fallen on the power lines 2 houses up and that they were clearing that. As soon as they could determine if they needed a new transformer and arrived (if needed) they could put the power back on. Don and I added more blankets and just curled up and took a nap. About 11:53 Donnie Lee called and as I answered the cell phone I realized that the power was on. I got up and checked the clocks and the power had come on 8 minutes before Donnie Lee called. That made 15 hours without power. I checked the temp on the programmable t-stat (it is digital and electronic) and the temp in the house was 50 degrees. Not to bad to be as cold as it was outside and no heat in the house for 15 hours. We started the little electric oil heater too and the house slowly began to heat up. We grabbed a bite to eat for lunch and then I jumped in the shower. I then started washing clothes hoping to get as much done as possible. Don's OT called about 2:30 to ask why he hadn't come to therapy. She loves giving him a hard time and he loves to give it right back. Somewhere about 3:00 or so it finally got warm enough to shed the blankets. Don started some homemade vegetable soup and had it almost done when Don and Taylor came in from riding 4 wheelers. Kristi said there was too much snow at her house for her to try to come over. The kids got changed and Taylor made grilled cheese sandwiches and we all had supper at the table once again. After supper we all piled back up on the couch and recliner with blankets and watched "Maverick" on the encore western channel. No idea yet if we will have school tomorrow. Today was day 89.
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