A weekly note

20 minutes left in the series finale of The Chestnut Man on Wednesday night and a very large collection of branches from a very large tree across the street came crashing down on the power lines. We heard a very loud noise at the exact time the house went dark.

Jealous we weren’t watching The Fir Man, hmm?

I started to call Avista, but their menu was too annoying so I called Pullman’s non-emergency line instead. I was told to keep bystanders away, so we went out and chatted with another couple that were paused on their neighborhood walk.

When the fire department appeared, they said the fuses on the pole hadn’t blown, so it was possible the wire was still live. They wrapped the intersection in some caution tape and we went back inside.

A was a trooper and stayed asleep through the entire thing, even though the little noise machine we have going for him stopped. It’s moments like that when you realize the noise machine is more for you, not them.

The nice thing about a winter power outage is how bright it is outside. The not so nice thing is the heat not being on. The house got down to about 62 before the power came back on around 2:45am. We’re pretty happy the outside low was only in the 20s.

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Also very happy it isn’t our tree!

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The thing about frozen fog is that it just lingers and lingers and lingers and all of a sudden there’s an inch of ice on every small little twig of every branch of every limb of every tree and it’s a wonder it doesn’t all come tumbling down.

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Contractions for parents: Ow! That —’ng hurt!

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Portrait of the Artist is back after a year break!

A will climb up on my lap and listen attentively for just about 2 pages before pushing off back to the floor.

It’s fun to read something different than a board book and fun that he likes listening. We’ll see if we get through it by the end of the next year.

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The grinder broke again, in the same way that it broke almost 3 years ago. Then I cleaned it and the grind got even worse.

This time I ordered 3 plastic ring replacement parts from Baratza, so we should be good for the next 9 years.

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David Byrne’s The Fat Man’s Comin’ is a perfectly excellent Christmas song.

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Angelo Badalamenti passed away on Sunday. His explanation of how he wrote the Twin Peaks theme song is absolutely fantastic.

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Every time I pour a can of Guinness into one of our Guinness glasses, I remember sheepishly approaching our favorite bar tender at O’Connor’s in Killarney, Rowan, and asking if there was any way I could pay for a glass to bring home as a souvenir. 26 year old me figured it may be a strange ask, would deplete their glassware inventory, etc…

He quickly turned around and pulled an extra out of a box that was obviously meant for this occasion and said something along the lines of “of course, 3 euros a piece”.

Every tourist has one, but it’s still a great glass!

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We enjoyed Operation Mincemeat. I’m still stuck on the fact that it starred two Mr. Darcys.

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Last night we watched The Vanishing, which was really good even though I dozed off for the last few minutes. After that and The Lighthouse, I’m pretty sure “slow burn psychological lighthouse thriller” is a genre I would watch again and again.

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Oh right, The Chestnut Man was very good and intense and I would recommend it.

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