PG&E turned off our electricity Tuesday night. Everyone in the area went into a panic buying cases of water, fire wood and non-perishable foods. Our community still has not healed from the 2017 Wildfires that took our county by storm claiming 17,500 homes in a matter of days. Most of them in the first few hours. Honestly, I’m not sure we will ever fully recover from that. Many of the home are rebuilt and life has returned to “normal”… but the fear is there. As a community, we have collective PTSD.

When they announced they would be turning off the electricity for the next 36 hours, I had a bit of fear myself. It was intensified by the need to fill up the gas tank and seeing the mass hysteria. I made a quick run to the grocery store for deli meats so we’d at least have sandwiches easily on hand. There were block long lines to get into the gas stations. Many of them sold out. The fear for most wasn’t having gas for the next few days, but the possibility of evacuation.

For the first few hours when the notice came, I was afraid to be away from Stephen. What if we got separated? No phone, no electricity, no internet… and we’re a one car family. If there was a fire, I was terrified of being apart. As it drew nearer to time for him to go to work, I forced myself to settle down. Nothing was going to happen while he was gone. It’s precautionary. So, I knit. I knit a lot! Knitting is one of the things which always soothes me.

The predicted winds woke me up about an hour ago. I can’t get back to sleep. They’re not howling, but strong, heavy winds whistling through the trees and our bedroom window. I snuggled Daddy close and tried to get back to sleep, but have given up for the moment. I don’t fight sleep anymore. It’s futile. The harder I try to more elusive it gets. LOL This was a concept I struggled to grasp. My mom always told me not to fight it, just get up and sleep when it comes. Much harder to do when you work full time and have to live by someone else’s clock. The principle has proven true over the years. I sleep when I’m tired and I don’t worry about the particular hours.

So, here I am sitting at my laptop at almost 3am wearing my new slippers and unicorn jammies wide awake… and not worried about it. 🙂

As of 7pm tonight, 10/10, we have full electricity and use of our home again.