Happy 2nd night of Chanukah folks..

It was clear and still this morning.. ut it was an amazing drive into work.. tere were trees down everywhere.. some places liek wes white hill were devastated beyond belief. We’ll be looking at the destruction of last nights storm for the nest 10 years.

My first stop after several meetings at home was an hour meeting with my Echo brethren and cisterns (?)… sisters ? .. to All Earth Renewables. Our friend Dave had offered the group a tour. They make small scale wind and sall scale solar trackers..

… though they don’t look so small when you’re next to them .

Here’s Dave showing us his toys.. this shows the very cool mechanical governor that keeps the thing from flying apart in a wind like last nights.

Here’s one of the extruded blaeds.. (the one in the middle).. the one on the right is molly..  looks kinda like American Gothic.

THen outside to teh solar fields.. these are really cool. they use GPS to track.. they park themselves in high winds and go vertical in heavy snow..   pretty amazing.

oh.. I <3 <3 <3 silicon

GOt home late after an incredibly full , busy (and fun) day.. The power was still off at jen and Tim, but we went up there.. Deb and the kids are back from canada.. so we went up to eat .. They had their generator running.. the only lights on their street that I could see..

Thank goodness the generator can power the essentials

Another great meal with the friends.. it feels like old times when we’re all together..

tim even broke out the weird glowy stuff.

Afterwards we all started talkign aout our cool new project idea.. (still looking for a name).. it’s aotu finding ways to use kids and techical folks to help people in needy parts of the world..

I started using the whipped cream to draw a diagram about the idea..

Yum.. it’s got to be a good idea…

more tomorrow..

nite all, nite sam
-me

The wind started last night.. it worked its way into my dreams,.. I dreamed of ships and flying.. and storms. When I woke this morning before light the house was rocking in the wind.. I felt like the house was going to break loose and fly away !.
I took the dogs for a run this morning and there were three huge trees down across the trails. An fine old tree at the trail head.. and two huge trees that beavers had started to gnaw..  One was bigger around than a man could grab .. I’ll be the beavers were proud. The dogs and I spent a good part of our run crawling over and under..downed limbs  and dodging wind ripped branches..

It kept up all through the day.. At one point the building I was in at work started to groan..   The ions were funny in the air.. everyone looked around expectantly.. but not much happened..
Driving home was a trip too.. once I crossed the interstate into Richmond everything was eerily dark.. the power was off for the whole town.. including the street lights and the cell towers.

I was grateful to see the lights come back as I drove into Jonesville..   I wasn’t prepared for the damage at our house.. A huge lib had been knocked off the tree near our driveway. It missed the house, but nearly took out two other trees.

The shelter we’d built fover the pizza oven had blown down.. (though it and the oven are still fine)

The clothes line had pulled most of the way over.. but it had been leaning for years.

. and the old cherry tree in the front year had fallen over.. Diane had wanted that down for years.. I knew if I waited long enough it would do it itself.. 🙂

It felt so good when I finally got inside.. the place was warm and bright ..   A perfect night for the first light of chanukah.. the Jewish festival of lights !..

We did the blessings ..

Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha’olamasher kidishanu b’mitz’votav v’tzivanul’had’lik neir shel Chanukah. (Amein)

Blessed are you, Lord, our G-d, sovereign of the universe
Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to light the lights of Chanukkah. (Amen)

It’s nice to have the candles burning tonight.. it sure is dark out there..

the woind has stopped…

and so must i

gnite all, gnite Sam !

-me