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After 6 1/2 LONG days, our power was finally restored after the big storms here in California.

We live in a pretty rural area, and the outage was caused by an oak tree down the road that was smashed to bits in the gale-force wind last Friday. Unfortunately, there are only about 14 houses on our street, and thus only about 14 households effected by the downed oak - so, it seems, our power restoration was put on the back burner while PG&E tended to larger communities.

Being rural, not having power means not having a working well - so we had no running water for the last 6 1/2 days. No toilets, no washing dishes, no grabbing a drink, brushing of teeth, etc. Our house is completely electric, so we didn’t have a gas stove to cook on. Our one saving grace was the fact that we are heated by a wood stove, so we were able to remain warm, and, on occasion, boil water for cooking with.

What did I learn? A lot of things - how to be more prepared when the next storm comes around (being from the San Francisco area, big storms and extended power outages are new to us). How to get creative when met with very limited options. How close we, as humans, REALLY are to living primitively, despite our gadgets and illusions otherwise. How much I missed our cheery light fixtures when faced with darkness for so long. That we should keep up on our laundry and dishes better, so as not to be left without.

And, I learned that even the most well-intentioned and well-laid plans sometimes hit a speed bump, and we must carry on.

I’m one of those folks who absolutely love the New Year - full of possibilities, blank slate and all that. I’m not one for resolutions, but more a positive, forward-thinking attitude adjustment. And I had a set of very nice, doable intentions for my business, to get started once my 5 y/o went back to school from Winter Break. That time period coincided with our outage, and nothing was accomplished.

One of my faults is that I start off things very excited, but when hit with a roadblock, I can and do tend to get discouraged easily. Not all the time. But it wouldn’t be unlike me to throw up my hands and wonder, “Why bother!”

To make matters a bit more hairy, I seem to be developing a flu my 5 y/o son brought home. Which will, likely, keep me out of commission a bit longer.

I’ve not let it go to my head though. I’m adopting the attitude that “everything happens for a reason” and waiting patiently for the time to be right for me to carry on with my projects. Something is clearly telling me it ain’t now!

In the meantime, we lost all the food in our fridge due to it getting warm in there a few days in - what a nice way to start fresh in our eating habits! I’m loathe to throw out food, but in being forced to, I can make a point to restock with the healthiest whole foods we can get. I was able to catch up on a lot of reading - Hunter Thompson’s biography (a Christmas gift from my mom), “The Things They Carried, “A Country Year” and a re-read of “Getting Things Done.” We finished moving furniture to put my office downstairs and my sons’ room upstairs, which should help the “flow” of the house a bit.

Plus, we all learned a bit about sticking it out together when the going gets, well, dark.

My New Year didn’t start off the way I intended, by any means, particularly professionally. But it’s a story to tell one day, and laugh at, and perhaps a few lessons learned that were more important at that moment.

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