FALLING FAR FROM THE TREE
After this past week I am truly thankful that the weather isn’t quite as cold and for many other things.
Our electricity at home and at The Reporter went out about 4 a.m. Wednesday. We got the house back on Saturday and the office on Sunday. I don’t know what Lin Perry did to get both of our buildings back online, but I am sure thankful for him.
I’m thankful for the linemen and the people cutting trees. One thing I don’t get is that the linemen around Rockdale were sent elsewhere to help and the ones, at least at our house, were from Louisiana. But I don’t know enough about linemen to have an opinion on why that is.
Every day I needed hot tea and lots of it. The first day I got hot water from sister-in-law, Noelia, who has a gas stove and water heater. The other days the lovely ladies at both Cocina Familiar and Cefco provided hot water with smiles. I’m thankful for all of them.
I’m thankful that most businesses on Cameron Avenue had power and were able to provide hot meals for everyone. I think I ate out more last week than any week I’ve been back in Rockdale since 2019. Thank you all.
I’m thankful for neighbors Gary and Annette Griesbach for lending me a corkscrew because I’d sent the only one we had at home with Mom and Dad, who spent the week at Rainbow Courts. And I’m thankful for Dan and Joan Ratliff for keeping my parents warm and dry and comfortable. They even cooked them a homemade meatloaf dinner one night.
I’m thankful for The Reporter employees who all tried to work the best they could when we couldn’t really do anything. One employee, Shannon Whorton, still doesn’t have electricity as I’m writing this. He had to lay out the pages for this week’s paper in complete darkness using only a flashlight. No easy task. As soon as Lin Perry got the power going in our building again, he and I were both up here working as fast as we could because of all the time lost last week.
I stayed at home and took care of the dogs all week. They did help me keep warm at night. I’m also thankful for all the people who offered me a bed, but I didn’t want to leave the dogs. They were already freaking out about the gunshot sounds the trees in the woods behind the house were making as they froze and cracked under the weight of ice. But in the end, they did keep me company so I’m thankful for them. Also, there were no horrible barf or poo accidents like there were at Christmas.
I’m also thankful for Michael Mack, Rockdale’s favorite dancer. He checked on me every day like he always does. He’s for the 49ers on Saturday in case you were wondering.
I think the funniest thing that happened was when I took a little movie on my phone of all the limbs down at my house and posted it to my Facebook page. Our office manager, Suzy Ammon said, “You’d better get your chainsaw out and start cutting. That’s what me and Al have been doing all day.” I told her it was really cute that she thinks we have a chainsaw. We Cookes are not handy people. We do certain things well but not the kind of things involving a chainsaw. Or most any other machinery.
I’m thankful for Cecil and Rachel Lopez, our acrossthe- street neighbors. Cecil, who is handy and owns a chainsaw, made quick work of some of the logs in our driveway on Saturday so we could get the cars in and out more easily.
I’m even thankful for all the usual people who complain about everything because they made me laugh when there really wasn’t much to laugh about last week. I hope their complaining warmed their hearts a little.
Special thanks to our city employees. They were working hard all last week and keeping the public informed about what was going on.
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