Marge Piercy

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I missed a week!

We’ve been hit and hit hard by three nor’easters so far this March. Each time we’ve lost power, the worst time so far for three days. Wednesday of this week, the second storm had passed by suddenly we lost power and so did everybody and every store and gym and supermarket and town offices from the Harwich border all the way to Provincetown. Eversource won’t spend the money to bury the lines so every storm, trees fall down and hit power lines and poles. Every storm, transformers blow.We’re luckier than most because we have a generator that will run the pump, the furnace, the freezer, the refrigerator and a couple of lights or computers. But we used up half our propane during the three days. We were scared we’d run out. Snows is good and they delivered yesterday, the first day they had power.I’m writing this on my new PC.   The files were moved from my possessed MAC to the new PC. Of course, half the time I can’t figure out how to do what I want or need to do. Nothing seems to be working at present, but I know even if I can’t save this, I can print it out. That doesn’t help get it available.In spite of the wintry storms we keep getting hit with, crocuses are blooming. The daffodils and day lilies are sticking up. Much of the ground is bare. We had begun working outside but the storms put an end to that. We’d only cleared a few perennial beds when winter returned. I have started eggplants, peppers, paste tomatoes and then yesterday, the main crop tomatoes. They all go up into the bay window in the living room and then out to the greenhouse. The hardy seedlings that germinated ae already in the greenhouse, so we watch the temperature carefully all day. It can easily get so hot when the sun shines that it could cook the seedlings. There’s a fan and we open the door when that happens. If often gets quite cold at night, still. If it’s not too cold, we just turn on the pad under the plants. If it get’s below freezing, we turn on the heater. In the morning, everything gets turned off.This is my last time through the novel. I’ve gotten enough feedback to see what I need to do, and I began doing it before the new PC was set up. Now I’m stymied because I don’t know how to access files in a usable way. I’m going to do something rare and odd: I’m going to read the book on Microsoft office on a PC.Last night we ate at a restaurant we like with a friend who spends part time on the Cape and a friend of his whom I liked very much. Melenie and I, on the other hand, have not managed to get together since we saw her in the play. We keep choosing dates and something happens. Meteorologists should consult us as we seem to pick out the next storm days in advance, simply by planning for a visit.