December Downers and Uppers

First the Downers!

Not too long after I posted on 12/7, my  Monday went to pieces.  The intermittent internet problems we had been having grew steadily worse, wifi dropped out every few seconds so nothing I typed would get saved.  I could not work doing telemedicine and had to call the cable company for troubleshooting.  Turns out our  combo router/modem was far outdated and failing, needing to be exchanged at their store.  

Then the power went out entirely for about an hour, a shutdown by the electric company due to high winds and fire danger.  I had to drive clear across town in the raging wind with palm fronds dropping on the freeway.  I made my exchange of equipment and got back on the freeway--but then my heart sank when I saw and smelled smoke as I neared home.  I learned by smartphone that it was 10 miles away in the next town.  

The wind caused a finch to be blown into our garage when I opened the door.  I had to leave it open to see if the bird would fly out--which it didn't for many hours.

Upon unpackaging the new modem and router, I followed instructions to plug everything in and called to activate it--but only got a recording saying it could not be activated due to outages in our area, so I had to take my laptop and actually go into the office to be able to work, for the first time since the pandemic shutdown in March!

The fire 10 miles away was caused by a falling tree branch hitting an electrical wire but did not spread too far, as firefighters were quickly after it. However, they closed the freeway a mile from our house and traffic heading east was backed up for quite a ways both on the freeway and surface streets.  Luckily my drive home was the opposite direction.  With an additional call to the cable company, and my husband's assistance, we were finally back in business.

And now the Uppers!

Oh,  the finch finally did leave the garage :)

This grandson came for a visit!  Papa got first dibs so I took photos. 

Dane was very interested in Papa's quilt on the sofa.  He was studying the patterns and checking my seam matching.  Mama Ashley monitored him well.  He's getting close to 4 months and is about to get a new cousin on the maternal side.   

Our other grandsons we visited at their house.  I had bought an advent calendar with chocolates and finally brought it to them.

Hunter (4) liked the tiny chocolates. 

He made the chocolates look bigger by using both hands to get them to his mouth.

Brother Cove (6) opened the door with the tiniest piece.  We enjoyed a lot of backyard time after they opened all the past days.  It was lovely to visit with our trio of brown-eyed grandsons.  

We made plans with to have a socially distant Christmas Eve BBQ in the backyard of their house this year--a definite upper!  I put out fewer Christmas decorations this year but changed up the ones in my sewing room--our former family room that has the fireplace. 

The wooden decor was a Secret Santa gift I received last year.  You can tell it's the sewing room by the ruler sticking up there, lol.

In the living room, Mini approves of Indoor Nature, and has been spending time lying on the quilted tree skirt.   She was there for hours one morning :)  

A little sparkle and plaid on the sideboard.  It has been very dry and windy so the only snow is the decorative type here in SoCal. 

Looking forward to the Covid vaccinations in the next few months and hopefully turning this shutdown in to a reopening in Spring.  What a year it has been!