Various and Sundry Things….

First order of business, our contest winners for last week: Veronica Johnson and Susan Craig.  Congratulations, ladies.  Your signed books are on their way to you as we speak.  🙂  A new round is underway; all you need to do is comment, and you’re entered.  Two winners will be chosen at random, notified by Jenni, and announced right here.  Each will receive an autographed book.
Now, to tell you about our recent adventure.  Last Tuesday, at 4 pm, as a major windstorm picked up speed, our power went out.  By ‘our’, I mean the main house, Mary Ann and Larry’s place, and the barn.  Since we live in the country, we depend on well water and, without electricity, the pumps don’t work.  Since such outages are not uncommon, we didn’t panic.  We ate cold suppers and went to our various beds, certain the lights and heat would be on by morning.
Not so much.  For health reasons, Mary Ann needs to be in a place where she can plug in.  Where else to go but the casino?  🙂  It has a very nice hotel and, since I love to play slot machines, I have comp. points up the yingy.  I called, and we wound up in a suite, mind you, complete with a jacuzzi, smart TVs, and just about the cushiest mattresses EVER.  We were among the lucky ones, no doubt about it.  We stayed two nights in the suite, then moved to another room, when the first reservation ran out.  Early Saturday morning, I checked my email and there, glory be, was a one-word message from our neighbor, sent late the night before.  It read simply, “Power!”
Yeehaws resounded.  I cancelled our remaining night’s reservation–hotel rooms were scarce indeed in Spokane–and headed for home.  My kitty-boys, well taken care of in my absence but certainly lonesome, were thrilled to see me.  (The horses were looked after, too–when their troughs got low, Handyman Doug bought fifty gallon water containers, filled them, and hauled them out here.)  At least, Button, the 20 year old, issues a rousing welcome, talking a mile a minute.  Wiki was a little standoffish for a while.  Seriously, Mom?  You had to be gone this long?