Yeah...I'm Not Okay With This

Hey, Friends.

Weird bit of excitement today.  It all started around noontime when a coworker asked me if I had seen what happened near my house.  I had no clue, but I saw he was bringing up an article in the local paper.  Fantastic. What could possibly have happened now?  My top three guesses were:

• Fire of some sort
• Crack house got busted
• Sting operation for allegedly running guns and drugs

Why were those my top 3 guesses?  Because they have all happened on my street since I bought my house 6 years ago.  And before you ask, Friends -- 2 and 3 were separate incidents involving different neighbors. I don't live in a bad area. I swear! However, I think it goes a long way in explaining why I pay attention when I notice weird shit going down in my neighborhood.

What I was not expecting was the story he actually pulled up:

Black Bear Spotted in Town of Poughkeepsie

Yeah.  Read that.  Join in my moment of WTF-ness.

Honestly, I probably wouldn't have believed him if I hadn't read the article myself...from a link that someone else emailed me. It is entirely too bizarre for words.

I find this disturbing for a few reasons -- not the least of which is that they haven't updated the story to say the bear has left the area or, more likely, been hit by a car or shot.  

***BREAKING NEWS***

Sorry for the interruption, Friends.  As I was writing this up last night the power went out. The lights blinked on and off a few times, and then darkness descended.  I finished that last sentence, then turned off the computer.  I lit a candle for a little light in the house, then grabbed my phone and went outside to explore and see how big the power outage was -- hoping it wasn't just like my house, or me and one other house.  

It was odd.  We weren't having a storm of any kind with winds that should have done any damage.  I hadn't heard any loud noises -- like a transformer blowing, or an accident nearby that hit a pole.  This was about 10 pm last night.

So I'm strolling the neighborhood in my pajamas, doing my own little survey of how big the outage appears to be.  My entire street is definitely out. Streetlights and traffic lights on the highway are out, and that's really bad as there are accidents there all of the time even when the lights are working. A large chunk of Main Street appears to be out as well, but from the top of our hill I can see that a couple blocks over and to the right the lights appear to be on.  Very odd.

I stop to chat with a neighbor who was out to walk her dog briefly.  Another neighbor comes home and tells us she was just at the Pizzeria Uno down the street.  The lights went out there, but they must have a generator because they came back up, but all of the lights everywhere else are out -- so now that's 3 major intersections involving the highway in both directions that are out.

I get the job of calling in the outage to the power company since my phone is the only one fully charged.  They give me an estimated restoration time of midnight, and none of us believe that it will really happen.  We part ways listening to the symphony or car horns and sirens that has begun.

A while later I'm back outside, as there was just a loud crunch like there might have been an accident.  I wander over to take a look at the highway and see if I now need to call 911. I don't see anything, and as I'm wandering back inside it occurs to me that it is probably really stupid to be wandering around in the dark, in my pajamas, with only my phone, because there was a fucking bear in the neighborhood this morning and how did I forget that it could still be wandering around out here with me?  I was literally just writing about it when the power went out!

I bump into yet another neighbor who is out to see what happened.  We chat briefly and this happens:

In related news, a neighbor and I have almost identical pajamas. #PowerOutageDiscoveries

— Tammy (@tammyshampoo) September 15, 2016

Yeah.  So now that half my neighbors have seen me in my pajamas, I decided that I'm just going to stay inside for the rest of the night.  Plus, you know, BEAR IN THE AREA.

Thankfully, around 11:45pm the power came back on.  

***END OF STORY WITHIN THE STORY***

Hi again, Friends.

So after a few hours of away time what with the power outage and the need for sleep, we are back. There was a bear, and I think I was about to explain why I was less than thrilled about it.

Before we go any further (and it might really be too late based on what I've written above) I need you to hold up your right hand and swear that none of you will turn into creepy stalkers and try to figure out exactly where I live.  I'm not talking to those of you that I actually know and that have been to my house before -- obviously it's cool and you are welcome.  I'm talking to my unknown Friends here online.  Promise you won't get creepy.  I think this entry alone makes it quite clear I already have enough weird-ass problems going on without adding "stalker" to the list.  It's not that I don't love you, Friends, but I don't need random people stopping by unannounced and making this all strange and unsettling.  If you're ever in the area and just desperately need to hang out with me, I'm sure we can work that out ahead of time and meet for coffee or something.  You know, when it wouldn't be weird and stalker-ish.

Everyone done with their "I'm Not Going To Be A Creepy Stalker" oath?  Fantastic.

First:  I'm worried about the bear itself.  This area is not meant for large wildlife to hang out and chill. The poor thing has to be seriously lost. How the heck did it even manage to get here to begin with? Maybe it wandered down the rail trail from somewhere else, but to get over in my neighborhood it still had to navigate across a lot of busy intersections and major roads.

That's Main Street.  Big intersection right there that always has accidents.  And yes, that would be the Uno's that still had power last night.

This is the intersection on Main Street where the bear was sighted.  

The block in between on Main Street, early on a foggy morning.  I couldn't pictures of everything for you yesterday, so this one is older.

Highway intersection on the other side of my street.  This also had no power last night. As you can clearly see in the picture, people almost hit each other on a regular basis even when the lights are working.

Sunset over Holy Trinity's parking lot last night -- after the bear sighting and before the power outage.

I'm really hoping they catch the bear before he gets himself injured, or causes and accident.  I don't even know if it's a young bear, probably lost and looking for his way home, or a big bear who came in search of food, or what the case may be.  I just hope it doesn't wind up hurt or dead.

Second:  The Interloper.  The Interloper is a feral cat that lives in my neighborhood.  It was born a couple of years after I moved in, and it used to chill in my back yard with it's Mama cat and two siblings.  Sadly, Interloper is the only one left now.  I hadn't seen Interloper for quite a while, but for the past month or so it has taken to hanging out in my back yard or on my back steps.  Most mornings when I wake up and go into the kitchen, I can see Interloper sitting up and looking at me through the back door of the porch, and giving me sad eyes and looking hungry.  Needless to say, I have now begun giving Interloper breakfast every morning.  That's how Interloper got its name.  Jazz-kitty is all cool with other cats walking around outside -- she just watches from the windows.  She never growls, or puffs up or anything.  As soon as the food started going out the door in the morning?  Jazz-kitty was not a fan of that happening. That's her food and she really didn't want to be sharing it with some unknown, outdoor menace.  Jazz follows me onto the back porch each time, and then sits in the window and glares daggers at the Interloper while it eats.  

The point of all that: I'm worried about The Interloper accidentally having a run in with the bear.  I don't even want to think about what would happen, and I really don't want to find an injured Interloper in my yard one morning that will have to go to the vet.  (I can report that Interloper was just here for breakfast this morning, looking fine and dandy.)

Third:  The advice in the article is ridiculous! I know they don't really have anything else they can say, but it is so totally dumb in this situation.

"Cleaning outdoor grills after use, removing bird feeders, and not leaving pet food outside are all ways to limit bear encounters. Garbage cans should be kept inside in a secure area and placed outside the morning of pick up."

I'm sorry, but that is the least of your problems in my neighborhood.  I don't think the bear wandered over here because of my neighbor's grill, or a bird feeder, or the empty cat bowl The Interloper uses. As I was discussing with the coworker who showed me the article, the residents are the least likely to be attracting the bear.

In that little stretch of a couple of blocks on Main Street, in either direction, there are a shit ton of better options for a hungry bear than a bird feeder.  We tried to name all of them.

Wendy's, Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts, KFC, at least 2 bars, 2 convenience stores, 2 Mexican restaurants, a Chinese restaurant, a pizzeria, Noshi's Coney Island Hot Dogs, a Vietnamese restaurant, Pizzeria Uno's, and the Acropolis Diner.  That's not even counting all of the restaurants in the area that run the length of a busy cross street.  If the bear is hungry, it has much better options than someone's grill or a bird feeder.  

Fourth:  I really don't need to meet the bear face to face.  I don't want it to get hurt, but I also don't want to encounter a pissed off or scared bear and end up getting mauled.  That's the stuff for nightmares and movies, and until yesterday I didn't think it would actually be possible in my neighborhood.  

So, that's what has been going on in my little corner of the world, Friends.  We've had a lot of excitement in the last 24 hours.  Today seems pretty normal so far, so let's hope it stays that way.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a good, bear-free day!

And Now The Exciting Conclusion (Hopefully) of Our Drama

This is, I hope, the last installment of the Parental Power Outage Saga.  If you need the background details, scroll back a few posts.  Start here.

So around 6pm I checked the status report again, hoping to at least see an estimated time of restoration.  No such luck.  

A few minutes later my mother calls.  She had tried calling the house, and she got the answering machine!  The power must be back on!  She was pretty stoked, no lie.

I volunteered to go over and see if the power was really back.  They had already gotten the house as warm as they could, then headed out for the evening. I was also kind of hoping to see if the crew was still there, to thank them for the hard work, and to see if they were local or had traveled from afar to help.

No sign of the crew when I arrived.  Who knows how long the power might have been back before my mother tried calling the house.  There was definitely light, however.

The outside light is on!  

OMG the power is really back on!  I went in to turn up their heat a bit so it would be warm when they returned later, but also to make sure the furnace would start.  I also had to check and make sure the oven was off.  You see, my mother has been worried this entire time that because she had the oven on when the power went out (trying to cook Thanksgiving dinner), that it was going to come roaring back to life when the power was restored.  It did not, but I did call her to tell her that.

I'm not sure what exactly the problem was, but they had obviously done some work at the pole at some point.  All of the snow was neatly cleaned off.

Pretty clear pole, and the trees look sparkly with ice

I am so thankful that they got their power -- and more specifically their heat -- back and functioning! It is getting freaking cold out.  

Feel like 16!  And it is only going to get colder!

A great big, enormous thank you to whichever crew got the power back on!  I would buy you all coffee and hand warmers if I knew who you were!  I am so relieved that their power is back on before this super cold night.

And just for the record...

We are finally in agreement, Central Hudson. 

*I'd like to think this is because you realized there was an error in your system somewhere and made haste to correct it.  However, it is possible that it is because I was a bit pushy a giant bitch.  I'd apologize, but I'm really not sorry.  Nobody screws with my parents.*

And So It Continues -- Power Outage Part II: Electric Bugaloo

As you might be guessing, my parents still don't have power.  Not up to speed on this whole deal?  Check out my previous posts.

I went out for brunch and a bit of shopping (to the grocery store -- which is empty the day after Thanksgiving people!  Best time to shop!)  with my mother.  My father opted to stay home and keep the heat sources running in an attempt to keep the house at least a little warm.

It was exciting for a bit this afternoon.  A little before 3pm the status check said that their power had been restored.  Hurrah!!

So I called them on the landline.  They might not realize the power was fixed until they heard the phone ringing.  They didn't answer, and when the answering machine never kicked on I knew the power must not really be back.

So I called my mother on her cell.  The power was not fixed.

She called Central Hudson, and they informed her that it had been fixed last night.  No.

Fucking no.

My mother asked if they thought she and her neighbor would both still be running generators if it had been fixed last night.  Whomever she spoke to asked if she wanted to file another work order.  Seriously?  They have no power or heat, do you really have to ask if they would like to have that situation resolved?

And then she went next door, to tell her neighbor the exciting news.  As you can imagine, he was as delighted as she had been to discover that they supposedly had gotten their power restored last night.  He was also going to call Central Hudson to correct them.

And now, when you check the status, it is back to this:

You might be thinking, "It's annoying/inconvenient not to have power.  It will get fixed.  Calm down."

No, I'm not going to calm down.  We are possibly going to have record-setting low temperatures tonight.

I logged on to Facebook, and saw a post from Central Hudson giving themselves a big old pat-on-the-back for all of the hard work they have done, and how they have restored 95% of the power outages. They are closing the warming centers and the dry ice distribution because everything is awesome now!

That is when my residual "niceness" about the situation finally ran out.  I wondered how many of these people really got their power restored, and how many they were claiming had been restored but, like my parents and their neighbors, were actually still out?

So I decided, just for shits and giggles, to message Central Hudson on Facebook and see if I got a response.  I'm more than happy to give them credit where credit is due: whomever was answering their Facebook messages did they best they could with the information they were given.

I explained the whole situation, how the status check had said their power was restored when it obviously was not, how my mother had called and been told it was restored when it wasn't, and then had to file another work order.

The first answer I got was the standard explanation about how sometimes when they fix a bigger problem, they can't tell that there is still a smaller problem further down the line.

I can see how that could happen, but that obviously is not the case here.  I informed them that it was only ever the two houses -- there was no bigger issue.  They can see the twisted wires on the pole -- there is nothing visibly evident as "down" if you are looking at the ground. 

A while later they wrote back and asked if she had reported that, about the twisted wires.  I had to call my mother to consult.  She told me she had reported that when she initially spoke to them yesterday (she even knew the name of the person she spoke to), and her neighbor had told the person he had spoken to several times (he knew that name as well).  When my mother had called this afternoon to report that, in fact, the power had not been restored she did not get the person's name, nor did they ask for any information.  All they had asked was if she wanted to open another work order.

The last message I received was that there was an open work order for both addresses since "a few hours ago".  I just gave up and said thank you.  It's obviously a complete load of crap since "a few hours ago" they were under the misapprehension that the power had been restored.  No one even called them to file the new work order under a little after 3pm.  

And so the power outage continues.

I understand that communication problems can easily take place in a situation like this. I do not, however, enjoy having smoke blown up my ass.  You screwed up.  You cannot simultaneously believe the power was restored and have an open work order on it.  You marked a problem as fixed when it clearly was not.  My guess?  Someone drove by, saw that no tree branches or wires were down, and marked it as fixed on the assumption that another crew had already been there.

In Which My Parents Still Don't Have Power

As I mentioned in my last post, my parents lost power at their house yesterday morning.  It is just their house and their neighbors' house -- only the two of them on the entire street.  That never bodes well in terms of how quickly you are going to get repaired.

I checked the status on the Central Hudson website last night, and it gave an estimated time of restoration.  Huzzah!  According to the website, their power was due to be restored around 12:30 this morning.  Even if it was a little later, at least they were going to get power and heat back soon.

I cropped it somewhat.  You don't need to see their address.

The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was to check and see if my parents had their power back.  I had sent my mother a text last night telling her that her power should come back overnight.  She had replied this morning.  I was expecting to see a message that said that power had been restored.  I did this before I even had coffee, which was a mistake.  I'm not a "morning person", and those who know me know better than to piss me off before I've had my coffee.  Her message said they still did not have power -- and this was several hours after the "estimated restoration" time.

Now I'm was annoyed.

So I went back to Central Hudson's Storm Central, and this is what I see when I check their status:

Seriously?  You went from 12:30am to "We don't know"?

I made some coffee, before I got any more pissed off, and called my mother to tell her the news.  She had already called and spoken to a live person at Central Hudson, and they gave her an estimation of 4:30 this afternoon.  I told her that I hoped that was correct, as the online status check had no such news.

And then she told me the part that really just pissed me off.  It probably didn't help that as she was telling me the story I was checking Central Hudson's Facebook page to see them talking about how hard they are working.

Post by Central Hudson.

That's great.  Really, I appreciate all of these people who came to help, many of whom I sure left their families on Thanksgiving to be here.  I appreciate it, I honestly do.

However, this all could apparently have been avoided --or the possibility of a power outage could have been decreased.

Their neighbor -- the one other house that has no power -- had been keeping an eye on things.  He also lived through the last go-round when their houses had been without power for four days.  He had reported to Central Hudson several times over the past few months that it appeared to be a bare wire running from the main electric line to their post.  It didn't look to have the same thicker cover over it that went from the main line to the other connections.  He had been proactive and reported this to them several times trying to avoid this exact situation.  Did anyone listen?  No.  And here they are, with no power once again.

I really should not be that surprised that they ignored him.  There is a streetlight out on my road, and I have reported it multiple times.  Two and a half years later they still have never fixed it.  Might as well bang your head against a wall as report an issue that they consider unimportant.

We shall see how this progresses.  I'm still holding out hopes that the Canadians will save the day and get their power back on quickly.

Because -- Turkey!

I have many things to be thankful for: my family, friends, and good health being the most important.  Today I am also thankful for random acts of kindness and electricity.  That may seem a bit odd, but let me explain.

I woke up this morning fully prepared to have to do battle with the heavy,wet snow we got yesterday.  I hate shoveling, so I had parked my car at the bottom of my driveway with every intention of doing the bare minimum to shovel out around it and clear the front steps and sidewalk.  I got bundled up and went outside and discovered that some kind soul had already done my entire driveway and the front walk!  It's a Thanksgiving miracle!  I know it wasn't the neighbor who shares my driveway, as her half had been left untouched.  I think it was my other neighbor, and he is awesome.  I will have to buy him some Heineken as a gift (that's his beverage of choice),

Feeling pretty good about the day, I went back inside to call my parents and tell them of my good luck, and to see what time I should venture on over.  My mother was cooking Thanksgiving dinner, and in return I was going to play tech support for all things computer related.  It was at this same time that I noticed a lot of people on Facebook were mentioning they did not have power.  I was very grateful that I still had mine, as did my parents.

About half an hour later my phone rang.  It was my mother, and they had just lost power.  Not the whole street, just them and their next-door neighbors.  Apparently the neighbor had come over to tell them he had seen what happened, and had already called Central Hudson.  No estimate given for restoration, and they suggested he make alternate plans for Thanksgiving, and it might be the entire weekend before the power was back.  My mother was calling to tell me that she was giving it half an hour, and then she would let me know if the power was back on or whether Thanksgiving was now going to be at my house.  Thank goodness someone had cleared my entire driveway for me!

As I ran around like crazy, trying to clean and straighten as much as possible for the unexpected company, it struck me that this really shouldn't be a surprise.  Every time my mother cooks a turkey there is a pretty good chance that the power will go out.

Yeah.  You read that correctly.  Mom cooking turkey = high chance of a power outage.

This is definitely not the first time the power has gone out when she was trying to cook a turkey.  It happens with unusual regularity.  I distinctly remember one time -- it wasn't even a holiday -- when she had to finish cooking a turkey on the wood stove in the living room.  My grandparents even showed up, as they had been driving home from a deep-sea fishing trip and decided the weather was too bad to drive all the way home.  They mistakenly thought we would have power.  I remember we did eventually have the turkey, but we also got to drink the liquefied ice cream that my grandparents had thought they were going to put in our freezer. That part was pretty cool when you're a kid -- it was like getting milkshakes!

For today's mobile cooking extravaganza, my mother brought basically everything in the universe that she might need for Thanksgiving, because apparently she thinks I own nothing related to the culinary arts.  Most of it was pans and dishes she had already prepped things in that just needed to go in a functional oven.  There were a few odd things though:

--flour
--poultry seasoning
--potato masher
--a corkscrew

Seriously, Mom?  You honestly thought I would not have a corkscrew?  Do you think I just break the neck off my wine bottles?  I have all my bases covered for alcohol consumption, thanks.  The only thing on that list I did not have was the poultry seasoning.  I have spices, we could have created something.  Also, who had the turkey baster?  Yeah, that was me.  She did not remember to bring one.

The one thing I was sadly lacking was a meat thermometer.  I have never had the need to use one, and she did not bring hers.  It would have been helpful, as our turkey had a pop-up button thingy on it that never popped.  I'm sure it was done though.  No one has gotten sick so far.

The biggest problem is going to be the fact that my parents still don't have power, and as of now Central Hudson still has no restoration estimate for them.  They have ventured back home, although I told them they should stay here.  They have the fireplace, and little heaters, and swear they will be fine.  Plus, the cats need them to be home to run those heat sources.  Central Hudson has warming centers open, and crews coming from as far away as Canada to help.  Also, we apparently sent several crews to help in Buffalo last week, and they are on the way back now.

I'd like to thank the Canadians for always being there to help.  Why the Canadians, specifically, you might be wondering?  A few years ago this same situation played out during a big storm, when only my parents and their immediate neighbors lost power.  It took 4 days, in freezing weather, before they could get their power restored.  The crew that eventually showed up was Canadian -- I know because I spoke to them.  It literally took them about half an hour to fix the problem.  The guy in charge said they pretty much just had to flip a switch on the pole, and apologized for the delay.

I really hope my parents get their power back soon, although that is not looking likely. At least I still have power, and they know that they are always welcome.  Hopefully the Canadians get here quickly, as it might be up to them to bring back the power once again!

I wonder if it would it help if my mother swears she will never cook a turkey ever again?  This is like the fourth or fifth time (that I can remember) when the power has gone out while she was trying to cook one.  She might be jinxed.