Has anyone heard from gardenweed after the nor'easter? Do you think that she's still making s'mores, sorting seed & filling jugs by the the light of her wood stove? Hope that you are ok, gardenweed! BTW link below mentions Westport, which is south CT on the coast & gardenweed is in the north almost to the MA line. A few customers still without power. Here is a link that might be useful: 11/4/11: 266 CT customers still without power

I am no longer powerless as of 4 p.m. yesterday. Lights came on just as I drove into the driveway from work. Since there's such extensive damage to trees, poles, wires, transformers, etc., I won't be surprised if there are sporadic service interuptions in the coming weeks. I hope to be back online from my home P/C later today. My closest neighbor ran a heavy-duty power cord from his house to mine but I couldn't really use it without leaving the door part-way open. The refrigerator has been warm for ten full days so there's nothing salvageable in it at this point. We don't have city water--the artesian wells here in CT provide lots of excellent fresh, clean water when there's electricity to run the pumps. No power = no water other than what you run ahead of the outage or what falls from the sky. Thanks to WS, one thing I have lots of are clean gallon milk jugs. A friend who didn't lose power saves them for me and sent me home one day with 4 gallons of water from her house to use for washing. I went to Outward Bound...twice...in Maine years ago and learned a lot of wilderness tricks that come in handy in these types of situations. First course was wilderness bushwhacking (hiking, climbing, rapelling); second course was sailing. A key lesson is not listening to your Little F*ck-it Voice when your back's against the wall. Morz8 - didn't need the space heater since the woodstove down cellar is so efficient, my upstairs was 69 degrees the whole time. Being warm was half the battle--it was folks that weren't who suffered a whole lot worse than I did. Somers, CT doesn't allow homes to be built on less than an acre of land and many homes are built on larger properties. Carlo's house next door is 200+ ft. south of mine. I do come from tough stock--Dad's family arrived in Massachusetts in 1621 aboard the sailing ship 'Fortune.' Mom's family came in 1631 when there weren't even any roads. Thanks for the generous offer Nancy. I'd be lying if I said the idea would make me wish the power was still off! tomva - thanks so much for the good wishes--they're much appreciated. Wendy - your prayers were answered!! Thank you so much! Not too many folks heat with wood around here--they mostly rely on noisy generators to KTLO (keep the lights on) & power the water pump. With extreme weather conditions becoming more frequent, I'm guessing the wood-burning stove business is going to be on the upswing. Couldn't sleep last night so I got started cleaning & doing laundry around 1 a.m. I'm just one person and I've got six loads of laundry piled up + bedding. Imagine what a family of four is facing! Oh, and Carlo's cousin he's staying with, her washing machine cr@pped out just as the power came back on so they can't even wash their mountains of laundry! I heated up a can of vegetable soup last night and rolled a biscuit to have with it--first hot meal in almost 2 weeks other than McDonald's & shelter food. I went back & ate a second bowl of soup it tasted so good. Tomorrow I'll empty the 'fridge & freezer & use Carlo's dumpster to get rid of all the spoiled food. This experience has taught me a lesson about keeping things in the freezer too long & buying multiples just because they're on sale. I should have Internet access later this afternoon and if there's time, I'll download photos from the camera to share. I'm also staring down the barrel of trying to make up work hours I missed.

First car... wow. 1970 VW Bug. Never tried jumping a curb, but it DID have a mind of it's own. It used to start honking the horn on it's own, blow fuses at will - boy did I get good at changing fuses, it would pop the tailpipe at will, I had to keep track of my miles because the gas gage fuse used to blow... if I had passengers in the back, the fender rubbed the tire... but all in all I loved that car - paid $1500 bucks for it and got every dime back out of it when I sold it 10 years later for a used 1987 Kawasaki Ninja... I used to pick up my girlfriends on that thing... parents LOOOOVED me! Still have the dang thing! NCTomatoman - wasn't a olive green pontiac tempest in My Cousin Vinnie??

Great to read this thread. I just got the same dishwasher last week-- and after one poorly loaded load (our fault), the second wash was much better. But I have a question for this group. I have read (and reread) the manual, but I cannot figure it out. I came into the kitchen today and saw the Start/Stop light slowly blinking. The manual says it's on Standby, which occurs at the end of a program. I open the dishwasher; everything is clean and dry, so I think it's the end of the normal program. But then I read some more-- and the next part of the manual says that the End light comes on at then end of the program. Which is it? Standby means the end? The End means the end? I'm guessing (only guessing here) that the End light comes on first-- for a time-- then switches over to Standby, to remind you the power is technically still on. Is that right? I appreciate any insight here!