Waiting up

Trevor is at the last Varsity game performing in the band. I wait up for the call to come pick him up. The weather was pouring rain and cold. I opted not to attend. This is a big crowded local game. Seats will be at a premium. I am sure there is someone other than me who would appreciate the oportunity to freeze in the wet cold more than I would.

Trev has his new phone with him. A couple of glitches needed to be dealt with. The fourth phone has been my mother in laws, but she never used it. the service for the fourth phone comes up in her name. Trevor called a friend on his new cell and was told Grandma's name appeared on their caller ID. I tried to fix it on line but was unable to receive e mail to get a log in code for our service. I called and found out the e mail was going to Tom instead of to mine. Got that problem fixed at the same time as getting Trevor's name on the account and Grandma's name off the account.

I also got instructions for setting up voice mail. I had started the voice mail, but it didn't thrill Trev to have his mother's voice announcing to his friends that they had reached Trevor's phone. He wanted to get that fixed also, with his own message, but he needed to do it himself on the phone itself. I took notes for him. When he gets back from the game he can fix it.

Coming home from school on the bus, today, the children passed a pick up truck wrapped around a tree. The neighbor children were worried, as the truck looked like their sister's car. They came over to use our phone as they are all cell phones at their house and these two didn't have one. They called their mom to find out it was their sister. Her breaks had gone out. In order not to go careening into the intersection she had turned into the pole. In hind sight it was a good choice, rather than involve others in a wreck.

The truck is parked on the street across from us with the drivers side all dented in. The only draw back is that the utility company has been out to replace the pole. She made a mess of it with wires down and the pole splintered. The workers have brought out a back hoe to dig a new pole into the ground. She will probably be billed for all the damages and repair costs. They have been there all evening six hours and counting, replacing the pole. The pole next to the one she hit had a transformer on it. She probably would have taken out the power to the whole neighborhood.

The whole accident makes me even more leery about letting my teenagers drive. I am hopeful the accident also made an impression on my boys. I wonder what it will do to the neighbor's auto insurance.

Having no gas to the house also points out our own limitations if we did lose power; No heat, no ability to cook, no fire place. This is the first house that we would not be able to self sustain for a while if we lost power. All the more reason to bring in gas or put in a fire place. We will get one eventually, Tom and I are too much survivalists not to be prepared for bad weather and being trapped up here on our hill. Even if I just pick up a camp stove and some propane tanks in the mean time as a back up plan.