April 16th, Monday – Electricity and Water Don’t Mix

Electricity and Water are a Bad Mix!  Tell you why in a minute.  This morning neither of us was moving all too fast, actually we were barely moving at all because of the night before.  The forecast for last night was for severe storms, high winds, and soaking rain.  They were not wrong.  At 10 pm the thunder rolled, then the rain came, and came, and continued to come, and the winds rocked us as if we were in a cradle.  Nothing we haven’t had before so I went right to sleep confident all would be well.  Oh silly me!

It was around 4 am and Barbara nudged me and said We don’t have electricity.  OK, I thought so mom’s house has lost electricity.  Then I looked out and discovered that her porch light was still on.  Now what in the world, I thought.  Well, first things first, switch the fridge over to propane and then let’s noodle this one out.  Fridge up and running, next I walked around to the other side of Graybeard and I knew in an instant what had happened.  I had failed to think things through once again, I forgot that her yard floods

and I had forgotten to lift the electrical junction between the two 50 amp cords onto a couple of leveling blocks before I went to bed.  The net result was that it was sitting in about 6 inches of water and as we all know electricity and water just don’t mix.  Into the house, find the right breaker, yup it was tripped, turn it back on and we were good to go again.  Ah well, tonight I’m sure will be a better night since there is no rain in the forecast and ,of course, I now have the junction of the two elevated just in case.

This, by the way, is a picture of Graybeard in mom’s driveway.  Kind of nice, just pull in

plug-in (and elevate the junction in the future) and you have a wonderful location for the duration.  The front door is to the left in the picture above which means just a couple of steps to hot showers, fantastic meals, and the best of company.

Well, we did eventually get up and get going.  Mom needed to go shopping, so we all went to the Wal-Mart Super Center.  She got the things she needed for her house, and we got what we needed for our house.  My sister had also just given us an induction cook top and a gift certificate for pots to use on it.  So today we picked up a couple of new pots, bright red at that.  Thanks sis!  We can’t wait to try this new gizmo out.

Back home Barbara and I had things to do.  But not before a nap, for me, which was definitely in order after the nights escapade.  After that Barbara worked on finishing our laundry.  I began working on Graybeard:  cover the tires, vacuum the lockers out, store the staples we brought back from Wal-Mart, and store the new toys I received from Amazon today – more on the way tomorrow and the next day.

So, that was the sum of our day.  Another great day by all counts.  Night is now all around us and between you and me it is going to be an early night.  We do need our beauty sleep!  As I sit here typing this tonight I’m thinking we are definitely living up to our mission statement, new states, new friends, boldly going where we have not been before.  Mom asked us the other day are you enjoying this new life and we both agreed yes, yes we are.  Most importantly, though, we continue to do it together, traveling down the road, side by side, singing our song.

Hope you had a great day as well.  The days we have to live are so precious and who knows how many we will be given.  So let’s make the most of every one.  Here’s a thought for each of us to ponder tonight and going forward:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.  Thanks again for sharing our day with us.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before