AH... the joy of icy hills, an anecdote.

One morning in December, I was woken by "Zorchsnapplesnapplecrackzorchpop" and a bit of glittery light out the northern window.
this was about 5:30am.
I stumbled around a bit, thinking, 'my, isn't it awefully quiet in here. is the electricity off?' and looking at my printer. there was no light on the printer. I flicked the switch on in the room, no light. piss.. i say to myself.
knock on Linc's door, 'Linc, a power line must have fallen. there's no electricity.'
a mumbling curse comes from his room. I go to the southern window, and it is sheeted over with Ice so thick, you can't see out.
well, there's the problem right there.
No electricity, no computer .... hey! Cell phone!
I go to facebook, and state we may have to eat the cat... the power had been down for only 15 minutes. BUAHAHAA. Linc didn't take too kindly to that post. I laughed.
BHP (black hills power) was called, and about 20 min later they were at the southern base of the hill. I watched from the apartment's door, and while watching, they tried to send up a bucket truck.
well. this is where it was truly interesting. During this time, about 6 or 8 of the workers were Icecapading across the intersection and up the hill. a few even fell.. poor guys!
Well, the bucket truck makes it about half way up the hill, slides sideways, then takes out two cars parked on the side of the hill.. "Merry Christmas, you get a new car, thanks to BHP."
The truck comes to a stop at the intersection where the men are now hand tossing salt and sand onto the road so they can walk without killing themselves.
They get a large sand truck out there finally, and THAT tries to go up the hill. Ain't happenin'. IT gets halfway up, and slides backwards back down. SO, it has to turn around, and BACK UP THE HILL so it can scatter sand and salt so IT can get a path to the downed power line. So far, it's been about an hour / hour and a half.
The sand truck says 'screw this, you got enough here for a truck to get up.' and goes back out to sand and salt the main streets.
well, it IS a path just big enough for a regular bhp truck, but not a bucket truck. so one guy drives up the hill, finds the downed line, and walks back to the truck. he's looking up at the pole that the line was connected to, and back to the truck, then back to the pole and then to the truck (insert old spice commercial here), like he's trying to figure out how the HELL he was gonna fix it.
well, he comes out of the truck holding a 4 or 5 foot, orange pole. I'm like, wtf? is he going to HIT the damn thing and get it to work?
but no.
it seems this pole is Retractable. He extends it about 20 feet up to where the line is broken, and FIXES THE GORRAM LINE!! WITH A FRIGGIN RETRACTABLE POLE! I was duely impressed.
The electricity comes back on, and we don't have to eat the cat.
however, neither Linc nor myself can make it to work that day, there was a no travel advisory put out by the police.

Update

I'm sorry I haven't posted lately. I have been sticking to packaged soups as of late, when my Dad had given me some for Christmas. But I used them as bases for a richer soup that I add veggies and meats to. So a simple bag, whisked into a pot of 8 cups of water turns into a nearly full meal (fruit being left out of the equasion there..)

I've been wiping out our tea supply as well. Right now my favorite is Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice. It's so strong, one bag for me makes a small pot of like 3 or 4 cups.

I'm thinking of making lasagna again tonight.. but I'm outta cheese and tomatoes. So off to the grocery store for those, and some more of those soup mixes! NOM NOM NOM.