HAL4NOW

I like the quote with one exception; many other things multiply when shared: love, disease, seeds, grumpiness, most attitudes, etc. I am happy to report that our power is still on, after 14 hours. Highway 2 is open in both directions, Stevens Pass Ski Resort is open, and life is looking like it might get back to normal in this little mountain town. One thing positive about all of the difficulties our town has experienced over the past few months is that we find out who cares for others. It turns out that most of the townspeople are there for each other. From the fire chief, who is like our own Christopher Robin going around the 100 Aker Wood checking on everyone, to the guy living in the trailer without any heat who helps with the local food bank and visits with people that are even less fortunate than him. The couple that works at the Pass decided to serve meals every day while the highway to their jobs was closed and the power was out. They got a key to the Masonic Hall where all the food from the local food pantry is stored, and they were able to cook up some wonderful dishes created from what was available. They served those meals with a side of friendliness and encouragement in a warm building with lights on because of the generator supplied by donations to the food pantry. The difficulties don't make a town better, but they do show the true character of the people going through them.

Power was restored at about 5:45 PM. Nice to have it back.

Checking in late, after shoveling out a few driveways and helping others with gas and propane runs. The power came on last night at 9:58 and then went out again about 2:30 this morning. We got a load of laundry done during the 4.5 hours of electricity, before going to bed. No estimate of when the power will be restored this time. Last night, the line-workers restored power during a storm with over 50 MPH winds and blowing rain and snow mixture. I am not surprised we lost power again and know that these workers must be extremely tired after the past few months of craziness. If weather isn't enough of a deterrent to the electrical grid, we have had a few power substations intentionally attacked during this Christmas season in Washington State. On a side note: glad I don't have a Tesla. I cannot imagine relying on an electric car during this crazy month. How much gas would it take to run my generator to charge a car so I could make more gas runs to run the generator to charge the car?

Many "Zoo Lights" events continue past Christmas and go into the New Year. Animal behavior isn't always enough to get the public to visit zoos in the cold and wet seasons. Zoo Lights has become a pretty popular gimmick and another source of funding for zoos.

Puget Sound Energy is telling us that power may be restored sometime this afternoon or evening, but those estimates are somewhat fluid 🙂

I guess all those government workers like to drive around in unpopulated places on Boxing Day 😉

Government holiday.

We made it to Monroe and back (74 miles roundtrip) without incident. Purchased three more 5-gallon gas cans while in town to stretch the time between runs. Got $0.40 off per gallon at Fred Meyer, so gas was only $3.59 per gallon today. My DW was able to come with me today, so we added a lunch at Ixtapa into the trip.

Thank you, @JazzyV for caring. If anyone is struggling to get through reading all of the Daily entries, JazzyV does an excellent job of acknowledging people that have commented. By reading through JazzyV's post each day you would get a good synopsis of what has been posted in the Daily.

Just four days so far this time; 15 days so far in December. Here is a quote from our latest email from Puget Sound Energy: "Thank you for your patience during this latest extended power outage. We know the last few months have been an exceptionally difficult time for your community." We also had some extended outages in September and October while the Bolt Creek Fire was active, and a few days in November around Thanksgiving. I know that the line-workers are doing everything they can to restore power. We are thankful they have not experienced any loss of life while working on this situation. The conditions they are asked to work in are never the best, and for this particular outage, the conditions have been abysmal. Their safety takes precedence over any need we have for flowing electricity. Because of the temperatures we have experienced, a number of neighbors are without water due to frozen pipes. Having to do gas runs is just an inconvenience and an extra cost, but nothing compared to what so many are experiencing.

I am sounding like a broken record; Power is still out in Skykomish, time for another gas run already. Highway 2 is still closed East of town because of freezing rain, and intermittently closed west of town due to debris flow from the Bolt Creek Fire.

Merry Christmas! Power is still off in Skykomish with no estimate of when it will be restored. The line crews (that truly work in all sorts of conditions) are being forced to be cautious because of the freezing rain on top of feet of snow in a fire zone that is prone to avalanche and debris flow for the next five to seven years. Highway 2 is closed on both sides of town: closed to the east due to avalanche danger and freezing rain, and closed to the west due to downed trees and water over the roadway. Christmas Eve service went well yesterday; a candlelight service doesn't need a lot of power. We did use the generator to bring the temperature up in the building and for PowerPoint presentations for story, scripture, and songs. We don't expect many at church this morning, but will still be there for whoever chooses to join us.

So were my neighbors. The highway closed behind me shortly after I made it back up the hill.

I hope your SIL is okay. That ice storm was kind of freaky for west of the cascades in Washington, normal occurrence in Portland, OR. Your Lemon Meringue pie looks delicious. I would love to come down to your place and share it, but Highway 2 is closed both directions again. Glad I was able to get out and back this morning. We are place-bound for Christmas, warm and tucked in with the soothing sounds of all the generators in the neighborhood humming away. We will walk to church (micro-spikes in place) tomorrow.

We have warmed up to the low 30's F. so most of the rain coming down is not freezing. It took me about an hour to find my car under all the frozen rain so I could load the gas cans. I did make it to Gold Bar and back to Skykomish for a gas run. $185.00 of liquid in multiple cans from our neighborhood. Hopefully the power will be back on before we need another gas run. Our local station doesn't have a generator and so they close during power outages. Todays trip was only 42 miles total. It was nice having less trafic because the highway is closed just east of town. I was able to take the trip at a safe speed without having cars on my bumper or people passing on blind corners. They don't call highway 2 the highway of death for nothing. I only saw a few cars in ditches and snowbanks and none of the accidents looked serious. Merry Christmas Eve. We are headed over to the church soon to start the generator again and warm the place up for the 5 PM candlelight service. Then join the fire department as they pick up Santa at the Skykomish Airport and have a parade through town before Santa distributes gifts to all of the children (ages 18 and under, unless you are over 18 and cry until Santa feels sorry for you). The food bank was opened without power yesterday evening and we served whoever could get there on the frozen roads. Probably sent a couple thousand pounds of food out the door.

Power still off, phone service has been out all day, and the internet went down for about an hour. The highway was closed most of the day, so glad we have had enough gas for the generator so far. Highway 2 reopened a few hours ago, so if it stays open and the power remains off (highly likely) a gas run to Gold Bar might be in my schedule tomorrow. The freezing rain over the compact snow and ice on the road could be the deciding factor on that trip. Very thankful for micro spikes I can put on any of my shoes and studded snow tires.

Like so many of you, we are experiencing cold temperatures in Skykomish; it has warmed up to 17F and may warm even more before Christmas. Power went out a few hours ago, so I got up and shoveled the drifted snow off of our covered patio so I could get to the generator and get that started. We only got about six new inches of snow on top of the two feet already on the ground. Because of the wind, any paths we make through the yard get backfilled with drifts. We expect another 16" of new snow today to add to what we have. I am actually slow-cooking a beef rib eye roast that I planned to cook in the oven today. I don't want to run the oven that long on generator power.

We noticed a few passengers couldn't access their tour tickets on their phones, but they were able to go on the HAL excursions by just showing their room keycards. HAL is doing better at making this easy.

It looks like Zuiderdam has had the same changes: Zuiderdam Observation Deck | HAL Cruiser Information (halfacts.com)

Most of what we need comes to us by email, so I just name the cruise (examples: 2022 Hawaii, 2023 New England, 2024 Panama Canal) and create subfolders under my Holland America email folder.

No. It sounds like his eligibility has been verified, but it is not automatically assigned to a cruise. You may need to phone HAL and ask to have that OBC applied.

We had a white elephant gift exchange at our Firefighter Banquet this year and one of the gifts was what I would classify as a stupid toy:

Jacqui, May the Lord bless you during this season of light. May your foot continue to heal and strengthen as the trip progresses. May your memories of Jose be strengthened as you visit his homeland. Enjoy the ship, the sea, the new friends, and the new memories you will build. Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us.

We booked a cruise for April/May of 2024 and then went to add the Firefighter's OBC. Went through the steps to get accepted for OBC with the Sheer ID verification. That was successful, but... after being sent back to "book a cruise" page, like you, we phoned HAL. They were able to add the OBC by checking my Mariner number and seeing that I had been approved. Less than a month had transpired between the booking and the verification. I liked the old system better.

Sunrise today from Skykomish, just a few minutes ago.