Of Pfeffernusse, Raging wind storms, power outages and BART confusion~~~

Hello Darklings,

Yes Trisha it is Pfeffernusse!!!  But one receipe calls for a hard sugar coating and another is with powdered sugar.  And I remember Mr. Manning's was powdered sugar, his daughter in law baked them following his late wife's receipe.  My mouth just salavates with remembering,  it is amazing that I didn't get fat.

Earlier last evening I mentioned this to my Sister and she said when she has a breather (many clients this time of year) she is going to try and make it.  For her baking is therapy, but then she shares her treats with us and neighbors.  She told me that there is something wonderful about the smell of something freshly baking in a kitchen.

And hopefully we'll be able to do it this weekend, the stove man is coming tomorrow to work on the stove and if all goes well, we can start cooking on it.  With two ovens and such we are going to have a very warm kitchen for the winter, but that should feel good.

Right now my body is aching all over,  last night we had a raging wind storm with 45 mile an hour guses,  it was enough to cause a fire in Napa, power outages around the area, it was terrible last night, I heard glass breaking, and we went through the house but all the windows were fine, this morning I discovered a pine cone had smashed one of the glass panes in the greenhouse, shot through it like a bullet, tree branches and leaves all over the garden front and back, had to clean out the leaves from the outside pond, the indoor one was fine but had to put a board up to block the cold,  I'll have my contractor work on it in a few days.

Then we heard a sound like thunder so Doyle and I went out to investigate, while Sis stayed in the house, it turned out to be  my neighbors canopy E-ZUp had flown over into my yard,  there it was it's broken metal legs in the air, the canopy acting like a kite and getting shredded at the same time. He came over and the three of us wrestled it into submission fighting it and the wind.  We saw other things fly over which I  found this morning such as a styrofoam cooler and a few other stray things that were not mine.  So this morning I was cleaning the worst of it, my contractor who is also my Sister's contractor came over with two men and put them to work to take care of any damaged done to Sis's house where it was being worked on, and he told me if I found any damage to my house to let him know and he'll have men come by and fix it, but I told him it might be a few days. 

Sis had to go and see her clients, Doyle had to go early this morning but came back this afternoon and is finishing up for me,  we lost power last night, Doyle had stayed up to work on a report after we tamed the wild E-ZUp,  and the lights went out, so he went into the basement and powered up the emergency generator to keep the refrigerators and freezer going, and had enough power to light a lamp so he could finish his report.  He set the old windeup Westclock so he'd wake up in time.  Imaging how startled I was this morning when I heard it go off instead of soothing music, nearly gave me a heart attack.

Our power came back on an hour ago,  thank goodness.  And Sis said she'd help me tomorrow with anything that needed work,  all the debrie on the front porch, just unbelieveable.

We saw that a tree had lost some large branches partly blocking the street, but people managed to get around them.  City clean up will get to it, the police had reported it and managed to move the branches so we'd have egress.

And now my back is aching, my leg muscels are aching, my hands are aching,  I think this evening I'm going to take a nice long hot soak with plenty of bubble bath and a touch of J'Adore in the water.

I called my Cousin Louise to see how she fared and she said things were fine, messy but fine and she was going out to dinner with a friend of hers and to not worry. 

Brian called me from the BART Station, Bart was not running because of computer problems so he's going to be late to work, he managed to grab a transbay Bus but of course the freeway traffic over the bridge is backed up because of BART's snaffu.  It was good thing I didn't have to go into work today, I'd never make it.

I managed to catch some of the news, and it is a mess, power lines down all over the place, power outtages, cars damaged by falling trees, and two people were killed in all of this.  Amazing when Mother Nature starts throwing her weight around.

And speaking of weight being thrown around, it seems that BART has another snafu on its contract because of that one clause on family leave.  Of course the Union knows that the people are not happy and will not tolerate even an idea of a strike,  but they do have other recourse, it even may go to court or arbritration. 
I do wish a law would be passed and settle this once and for all.

I thought we might have Coralline this weekend but her Mother asked if we could have her for the following weekend instead, frankly that would be better, I need to know from the little girl, who is growing so fast, what mischief has she been into lately.

And Bat Kid is still in the news, it seems someone has put together a "movie trailer" as if a movie about the adventures of Bat Kid is coming out, not really but the trailer is fun, highlighting all the high points of Bat Kid's adventures.  The little guy said that the Penguin was nice and apologized for being such a Bad person, but not the Riddler, now he's got to catch the Joker.  Still a feel good moment.

Now I'm going to relax and have a cup of hot chocolate,  You're right Trish, I do make every effort for my home to be a santuary to feel safe and even cocooned from all the "evils" of the outside world, it becomes a world unto itself.  It is colors, textures, scents, and warmth, an enviroment to banish the stresses of the world.  We know there are concerns out there, some we can do something about, other's we can support positive efforts, and in others we make our opinion known by writing letters to our politicians and make our presence known at the voting booth.   I know that I cannot singlehandedly save the world, but I can save a small piece of it.

Oh and that very cute police officer that I met a number of weeks ago called and asked if would be alright to take a tour of my house the Sunday after Thanksgiving with his wife and two little children, I said that would be perfect and we arranged a time for them to come by, he said that he and his wife managed to buy an old 1912 Craftsman, at a good interest rate, a fixer upper, and estate sale, the person had no family and the funds were to go to charity, but it needed serious work, so he wants to have his wife see my house to be inspired.  I think I can do that.

And now for that hot chocolate.

Later Darklings

Sometimes the simplest pleasures are the best.