Vakkotaur

jmaynard and I left for Merrill, WI Saturday afternoon and arrived in the evening. I must've been tired as I didn't notice just how dark everything was in the area. There were many areas without electricity and my folks were in a smaller one of those areas. Good use was made of a generator and so things were kept running. A gas oven meant cooking and baking were not badly affected, and there is a (properly vented) gas space heater that kept part of the house warm. The bad side was that the generator would not run all night on a tank of gasoline. Had it been colder, that would have meant someone tending the generator every hour or two all night. As it was relatively (for northern Wisconsin in late December...) it simply wasn't run through the night.

As it was a clear night, sistaur and I went out stargazing for a while. There was still glow from all the lights of Merrill, but there were no nearby mercury or sodium vapor lamps mucking up the view. The Winter Milky Way was visible and I could make out the Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer as a fuzzy patch without any optical aid.

Sunday morning we were still using the generator for power, but eventually we saw a Wisconsin Public Service truck go by and a little while later we were "on the grid" again. Ann, Jay, and I spent some time doing some last-minute Christmas shopping which turned out rather better than might have been expected.

Sunday evening was the big Christmas dinner. A guest brought an astonishing amount of cheese and sausage and a fair amount of Coca-cola as well. These were not some holiday gift pack items, either, but standard bricks of cheese and very large sausages. Jay and I now have a nontrivial amount of cheese and sausage in the fridge (and freezer) and we didn't take all of it.

After the big meal came the opening of the presents. The earlier shopping was shown to have gone well as any doubts about some items were quickly erased. Everyone seemed quite pleased, which was and is good. Conversation and snacking went on for some time.

Today was mainly snacking and packing and the trip back. The trip back was nicely uneventful, with one minor exception. Between Mankato and Lake Crystal traffic was stopped and a group on horseback crossed the highway and rode along it. This was not just a few folks out for an afternoon trail ride, but something more as the traffic had been stopped by the police and I could see a feathered headdress on one of the riders.