Ok

The Very Merry Maemo Christmas Adventure.

A week ago, it was said that our coast was to get hit with a truly nasty storm.
Knowing that Gabriola Island is absolutely infested with trees (we are a enviro bunch here), and that a bumblebee farting would bring chaos in trees falling everywhere and power lines getting cut and us without power overnight.

So, I had everything ready like I always do.
Here, as elsewhere outside of cities, most smart folks prepare for inclement weather.
Most those in the cities do not.

So back to the story.

The storm hit.
It was vicious.
One of the worst on record in fact.
The damage it wrought over the islands and the mainland was significant.
Over 900 outages.
The Hydro crews are still working on restoring power.
In many cases due to the storm, accessibility by road was impossible so helicopter assessments had to get done to determine the extent of damage and tally what equipments were needed to send into these areas to effectively restore power without waiting for supplies to arrive...while crews waited.
Brilliant response and mobilisation tactics all around frankly.

So yes..
the storm hit.
The power on Gabriola went out.
That was the 20th of December.

But I was prepared in some fashion and had my priorities straight.
Maemo-wise, that is ...


So I made sure the day before...
that I had :
- a hand crank LED lantern/flashlight pre charged.
( on my "to buy" list is a hand crank light/AM/FM/SW radio with usb charging..for sure....now..)

- My $200 power monkey solar charger pre charged. (which decided to be absolutely useless and die on me, hasn't been used twice ...not impressed.)

- My trusty and always works... Solio which solar charges and power banks...(that I bought for $20 a decade ago ...and just keeps on chugging away...charges virtually any mobile...)

- my 3 nexus 5's (which with reduced lighting I wasn't going to do the onerous job of changing batteries...instead just burn through the three of them (which IS true since they burn battery at a speed faster than light...)

- one of my n800's out ...crammed full of film and audio books,
(Hell I have the complete works of Shakespeare on film on it...Desert Island survival n800 101) and a whack of fully charged batteries.

- one of my n810's out ....same deal as the n800...packed full.
with a whack of fully charged batteries.

-one of my n900's out as "Last Resort" when all 3 nexus burned through the batteries..for when I needed a phone that had a lifespan of more than an hour of intense usage.

- and some pre tech tech in the form of a few proper oil lamps.



The power went out.
On the 20th of December.
and all updates on when the power would be restored for Gabriola were stating "assigned" ....meaning it was on "the List" to get around to it...
Where on "the List" one could be , and the priority to get the power up and running ...is anyone's guess.

I have no problem with a lack of power to keep the well pump pumping water...gravity from the the well being situated higher up the hillside than my house allowed for a steady stream...
have good filtration on it too.
The crick provided a continuous supply of clean water as well...
Bought blocks of ice kept the fridge and freezers stable and cold...
during this outage...
(All transactions by businesses on Gabriola were forced to do so with cash only...
making things interesting ...
Most folks have back up generators on Gabriola to provide power to their homes and businesses ...
So the inconvenience was minimal.)


I spent my day lit hours getting what chores done I could.
from 9 am to 3:30 pm it was light enough to do most things ..
after that ..
It was doing by lamp light.

So my evenings were spent playing around with gtkgep on my n800, and my harps...
listening to audio books, audio plays, classical music, and such...
and settling down to read "Ice Station Zebra" (one of my favourite books and films) in hardcover...by oil lamplight .

My nokia n800 used only 3 batteries during constant use through the entirety ...quite happy with that.


On the day of the 23rd of December I realised if I didn't want to sit despondently with no Christmas dinner ...I should just keep sitting...(not that I did a lot of sitting...only late at night...due to all the daily preparations one must do when living by daylight ...)
So saying ..."F@#K others for jeopardising my Christmas dinner..."
So ...with no end in sight for restoring power...
I determined if I started on the morning of the 23rd ...
and didn't stop...
If I was lucky I should have my usual complete Christmas dinner cooked and done, by the afternoon evening of the 24th, leaving me a few days to clean up and be ready for work...
The reason it would take me 2 days to do dinner (and frankly that is a rushed dinner at that ....normally...) was...

I was going to have to do a full Christmas dinner on top of my cute little wood stove.

Now I have done a dish ...here and there... on a wood stove...
I enjoy doing such things ..
It isn't "rustic" or "pioneer" or anything...
It is practical...
But NEVER a full dinner.

So I began..



I won't deluge everyone with pictures of pots and such on this stove...
Needless to say ...it was quite the interesting time...

Finally I got the essentials for a Christmas dinner done.
The barest essentials...
a veritable spartan Christmas dinner by my standards.
But it would suffice to keep my emotional need for a proper X-mas propriety ...complete.

Happiness is...family traditions...based on food.

So I got it all done by 4pm ....and needed to sit down and eat before I was doing clean up of food and pots by lamplight.



and so I sat down...
Picked up my fork...
got a good fork full of turkey ...
lifted it to mouth...

(for your entertainment ...dearest reader ...I captured the exact moment for posterity...
the quintessential..."caught-off-guard WTF !" pic of the year.)

Aaaaaaand....

then the power came back on....



followed naturally by a slew of other emotions captured on film.

and so I determined to enjoy my meal...
I went,
shut off the main breaker for power,
and enjoyed my Christmas dinner by lamp light.

then cleaned up the dishes and promptly went to bed.

And today it is now time to get back to chores...

So endeth the storyeth of Pauleth's grandeth Christmas Adventuretheth...



Merry Christmas one and all...