Sunday, February 28, 2010
The snow catastrophe
Last Friday, we had snow again, this time though it was a really big snow. I know I have said that before, but this one was Really big. See the pictures how beautiful was the house, the forest, and the street.
The newspapers said 24 inches of snow (60 cm) in Westchester area, where we live, and 16 inches in New York city. You can see the accumulated snow on top of our tiny solar lamp, and in the table.
But the really bad news is that half Westchester area collapsed, with power outages here and there. And of course we were among the victims. On Thursday night the power was gone, and with the power, the heating and the water because it comes from a well and it needs to be pumped up. On top of that the blowers didn't cache up and roads were not in a good shape, not mentioning our driveway so we were isolated with no electricity, no water, no heating and the worse, without internet!
We didn't know what was going on so we went out and we met the neighbors. And look what we found at the end of our driveway, a tree fell down on the power line, cutting the road.
The neighbors were very kind and took us out to the supermarket so that we could buy some water and candles and we went out for dinner. It was pretty cold in the house but with the fire place we could keep warm. On Sunday everything came back to normal, even Internet. It was an interesting experience, thanks god we expect the baby in the summer.
Divendres passat va tornar a nevar, pero aquest cop va ser una gran nevada, si, ja se que ja ho he dit abans pero aquest cop va ser Gran de veritat. Mira que bonica la casa, el bosc i el carrer.
Els diaris deien 60 cm de neu a Westchester, que és on vivim, i 40 cm a la ciutat de Nova York. Davant de casa, mira la neu acumulada a sobre la nostre petita llum solar, i a sobre la taula.
Però la mala noticia és que Westchester va quedar paralitzat, amb talls de corrent per tot arreu i, com no, vam formar part dels afectats. Dijous a la nit va marxar la corrent, i amb la corrent ens vem quedar sense calefacció i sense aigua, perquè l'aigua ve d'un pou i necessita ser bombejada. A sobre les màquines lleva-neu no donaven l'avast i les carreteres no estaven en gaire bones condicions, pero les carreteres rai es van recuperar ràpid però el nostre driveway va quedar totalment cobert de neu amb la qual cosa vam quedar aïllats, sense electricitat, ni calefacció ni aigua i el pitjor, sense Internet!
No sabiem si n'hi havia per molt o que així que vam anar a fer una visita als veins. I mira la sorpresa que ens vem trobar al final del driveway, un arbre caigut sobre el cable elèctric i tallant la carretera.
Els veins, molt amables, ens van portar fins al super i vem poder comprar aigua i veles, i vem anar a sopar plegats. Feia una mica de fred a casa però amb el foc a terra no s'estava tan malament. El diumenge tot va tornar a la normalitat, fins hi tot tenim internet.
Una experiència interessant, sort que el nen ha de neixer al estiu!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Week 26: Fat
When I was already dreaming about birds singing, trees flourishing and the nice weather arriving with the spring, we had still a couple of big snows, then I woke up and realize I was in Katonah. Anyway, the snow looks nice so I took some pictures of our cozy basement and its surroundings in winter mode:
This is the entrance of the basement, we have the trail marked by tiny solar lamps, the drawback is that if it is not sunny during the day we don't have light.
And other than that, my tummy continues growing at a good pace. With winter cloths it is still not recognizable, but I look very fat with the swimming suite.
Two weeks ago we visit the hospital where the delivery will take place, they organize tours, amazing this Health Care system. The hospital looks posh and quiet, with all private rooms, there is delivery room and the post-delivery room, the last one has TV and a convertible sofa, and there is a hot tube to use during labor! they claimed it is not very popular so I may give it a try.
The hospital procedures are also very reasonable, if everything goes well they will give me the baby immediately so that we can greet each other and they will teach me how to breastfeed him, which I will appreciate very much.
The only thing that bothered me was the ratio of C sections, they told it was about 40%, that means that more than 1 over three deliveries is a C section! I thought it was a lot but after some research we found out that it is quite standard in America because if the doctors face any complication they want to be on the safe side to avoid being sued. We also notice that they feel uneasy talking about this. So my fingers are crossed!
Quan ja estava somiang amb ocellets cantant, arbres florits i el bon temps arrivant amb la primavera, encara hem tingut un parell de nevades fortes, que em van despertar del meu somni primaveral per adonar-me que estic vivint a Katonah. En qualsevol cas la neu és bonica així que he tirat unes fotos del nostre sotan acollidor i els seus voltants.
Aquesta és l'entrada, marcada per unes petites llums solars, l'únic inconvenient és que si no hi ha sol, no hi ha llum.I apart d'això, le panxolina creix a bon ritme, no es nota tant amb la roba d'hivern però amb el banyador estic molt gordi.
Fa dos setmanes vem visitar el hospital aprofitant que organitzen turs, coses del sistema america. L'hospital és pijo i tranquil, amb totes les habitacions privades, una pel part i una altre per després del part amb tele i un sofa reclinable. El millor és que tenen un jacussi per fer servir durant les contraccions i sembla que no es molt popular aixi que igual aprofito.
També van explicar que si tot va bé m'enxufaran la criatura de seguida per poder-nos saludar i m'ensenyaran a donar-li el pit, cosa que agrairé moltíssim.
L'únic que no em va agradar tant va ser el percentatge de cessàreas que és més del 40%, em va semblar que era molt, però sembla ser que és molt comú aqui, ja que si els metges veuen alguna petita complicació es curen amb salut i fan una cessàrea per por a ser denunciats. També vem notar que no estan còmodes parlant del tema. Així que creuo els dits esperant que tot vagi bé!
