The 'root' of the problem!

Well, after 3 weeks of painting, sanding and tiling we are almost finished our improvements to our house at Emu Plains. I have been missing in action on blogger because I have had such little time. Finally last week we lacquered the timber floors and I was forced to be at home until they were adequately dry. It was a much longed for break.
I spent my first day, Monday catching up on my V.T. and visited Doris Black for her 82nd birthday up in Bilpin.
Tuesday, I worked all day at the boys High school canteen (although the boys were off school with colds). Wednesday, Jordan arrived back and it was Andrew's birthday so on the way home from the airport we dropped in to say hi and grab a quick lunch before racing back to pick the boys up from school. That night we went to dinner with the boys (minus a jet lagged Jordan) for Andrew's birthday.
Thursday was due to be my first day home to catch up on EVERYTHING for 3 1/2 weeks. At 9.30am the power was turned off by the electicity company for maintenance on the lines! I had been unaware it was going off and was not prepared at all. Because we are on water tanks when the power is turned off we also lose our water as the pump is electric. So, I sat in my unshowered state and sorted through paper work, shivering as we had no heat. While sorting the paperwork, I found the notice in my pile of mail informing me of the planned power outage. Dishes, vacuuming, ironing all had to keep waiting. The power came back on at 2.30pm in time for me to have a quick shower and get out the door to pick Bailey up from school. The other boys got off the bus at 4pm, so I picked them up took them home for a snack and to change and then we left for training at Emu Plains. Just as we were coming into a busy Penrith at 5.15pm my car chose that moment to break down! It stalled and would not start. We were blocking traffic at the busiest time of day at the busiest intersection in Penrith. Fortunately some helpful men must have seen my pathetic looking face and offered to help push me accross the lanes and up onto the curb.
I called Emma and she came and took the boys the rest of the way to training. I called Andrew and he came and picked us up.
The following morning we left home at 7am to take Jordan and Mitchell to their regional athletics carnival. We dropped them off and then went and hired a car trailer and towed my car to the mechanic next to Andrew's work. I then drove over to our house at Emu Plains to check on the floors and give it a bit of a tidy up before the agent was due to arrive to take new interior photos. From there I drove home to get the boys. After dropping them back at home I drove 45 mins back to Andrew's work and picked him up.
Looking forward to an evening at home, Andrew and I stopped to buy some food to cook dinner for the boys and arrived home. I made dinner and dropped Jordan anfd his friend Darren up to my sis-in-law's house to go to a multi-stake dance.
Not long after arriving home, the wind picked up and we could hear things banging around outside. It was blowing a gale. I was praying that our roof was secure! Sure enough a few moments later we lost all power, including phone and water again. Jordan arrived home from the dance that night and told us he hand Darren had had to move a tree off our road so Darren's Mum could get through to our house.
By the following morning (Saturday) it was still not on. We decided to drive over to Emu Plains (40 mins) to have showers before the boys football started. On our way over we were met with a road closure near our house and saw what had caused the problem. A tree had come crashing through the power lines and a little further down the road was a power pole down.




We had to turn around and go the long way and there were branches and debris everywhere.
Arriving home after football aroun 6pm we were hopeful we would have power, but not so. We realised that our freezer had defrosted all over the floor and tried to clean up the best we could in a now dark house.
Meredith had kindly offered for us to go to their house and have pizzas which we did.
Finally, Sunday morning (after 36 hours without power) we heard the TV turn on. What a sweet sound! I am so grateful for electricity. I would have been terrible in any other era!
So today is the start of a new week.
Andrew is organising a generator, my car is being fixed and I am hoping to catch up on EVERYTHING I didn't get done last week!

It makes you realise not to take anything for granted.