The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

Gang aft agley....
Day 4 without power
Photo taken on the 23rd and I'm writing this on the 26th.
I thought of these words from "Tae a Moose" (Robert Burns) when all our Christmas plans were changed because of the most severe windstorm we've had in years.  We'd planned to go to our daughter's on the mainland for a few days over the holidays but then the winds came - blowing a hoolie a major understatement!  Power went out on the morning of the 20th when trees came down across the power lines on our road, and as of today it isn't back on.  Latest word from BC Hydro is that the hope is to have power back to all customers on this island by the 30th.  There were over 600,000 customers without power on Vancouver Island, the southern Gulf Islands, and parts of the lower mainland. 
A huge shoutout to all the hydro crews and contractors who are working in dangerous situations to get power back to everyone!   
We decided on the 24th to travel over on Christmas day and will likely go home on the 28th because we can't leave the house for any longer in this cold weather.  Fortunately we have a generator and could plug in the fridge for a couple of hours throughout the day. We had water and could heat it on the wood stove.  No internet but a landline, thankfully, so we were able to communicate with friends and neighbours who also have a landline.  Some neighbours didn't have water and were able to fill up buckets and get drinking water from us. 
The long and the short of it is that we managed okay, much better than people who are stranded without power, water or heat and whose roads are still impassable.  We'll manage okay when we go home too and hope that the power will be on by the 30th.

No way will I be able to catch up on blip although I will back blip a few photos when I get time. Just wanted to write a quick message to fellow blippers to say that we hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We were so lucky to get to our daughter's  in time for Christmas dinner with the family and have holiday time with them, even if only a short time.  Will be back to regular blipping asap!  And I must admit that I'm quite enjoying having time away from technology.  :)