Flickers and Mother’s Flashlight

Mary Steinhoff’s Flashlight

I went to bed uncharacteristically early Friday night, which caused me to wake up around 5:15 a.m. I went into the kitchen for something to drink and decided to watch a little TV.

I hadn’t been there long when the kitchen went dark. That can happen if I try to use two high-wattage appliances at the same time, but nothing big was running.

The blackout was followed by a few encouraging flashes, then total darkness. The whole block was dark. The radar was clear and it wasn’t storming. (It reminded me of the blackout during Y2K.) Scanner traffic said that power was out around the Mt. Auburn neighborhoods, too.

I have little dollar flashlights hanging strategically in every room in the house, so I had enough light to wander back to the bedroom where I grabbed Mother’s old faithful bedside flashlight.

I bought it for her 25 or more years ago, and she always kept it next to her bed. She loved it because of its bright yellow color, but also because the shape made it easy to grab and to carry. It had an easily pushed button that would project a beam straight ahead, or at your feet.

We debated burying it with her, but figured she’d be mad that we wasted such a useful gizmo. I inherited it with the house.

Held off on the generator

Kingsway generator 07-01-2023

I bought a Champion tri-fuel generator last year, but didn’t get around to extending the natural gas line and electrical hookup until AFTER I lost power for 16 hours and 38 minutes in the winter. 

I gave some thought to hooking it up, but the house was cool enough for sleeping, and I decided it would be easier to do it after it was light, if the power hadn’t been restored by then.

As it turned out, that was a good decision because things started coming back to life at 6:06 a.m..

So, the generator is patiently waiting. Its battery is trickle-charged, and it’s wearing its GenTent cover ready to spring into action.

Ready in Florida

I bought a little 3000-watt generator after Hurricane Hugo, and didn’t use it until a series of storms rolled over Florida ten years later, starting in 2004.

I gifted the small unit to Son Matt, and bought a larger one that I adapted to run off propane and natural gas. It sleeps in our backyard shed, along with hurricane panels, tarps, sleeping bags and other storm supplies.

Generator’s only good if you can keep it

There’s a story that may or may not be apocryphal about a guy who parked his generator right outside his bedroom window so he could make sure it was still there.

In the middle of the night, he could hear it humming away, but his room was getting hot. He went out to find a thief had substituted a running lawnmower for his generator.

There are some stories that should be true, even if they aren’t.

Here’s how we secure the Florida power supply. A thief could still make off with it, but he’d have to have the right tools and a degree of determination.

(If he leaves a lawnmower, I hope it’s one of equal value.)

 

THIS was a surprise

Split tree 07-01-2023

The region was under a severe thunderstorm warning a big chuck of the July 1 afternoon. It blew through fast with some gusty winds and rumbles of thunder, but only about .03 inches of much-needed rain.

I heard scanner reports of trees down and power outages, but I thought we had escaped any excitement on Kingsway.

I went out to pick up a limb that had fallen off a maple tree several days ago, and was surprised to see this splintered walnut tree. It’s leaning against another tree, and isn’t in a place where it would damage anything except a concrete birdbath.

I’ll let God and gravity take care of it.

 

I DID Have Christmas Decorations

Christmas Towels 12-25-2020

While sitting on the throne on Christmas, I looked to my right and realized that the house DID have decorations up.

These towels have been hanging there for no telling how long. I know they’ve been there since Mother died in 2015. It just never dawned on me until today that they were seasonal.

Obviously, I don’t use them.

I started to crop out the lacy thing on the right, but decided to leave it for historical accuracy, and as a sample of earlier customs. It’s a loop that was designed to hold extra rolls of toilet paper.

I don’t use it, either, but I’ve left it up for sentimental reasons. Any of the Steinhoff Clan who would like to claim it can speak up. I’ll even pay the postage.

 

Old Cape Fire Station #4

When the Steinhoff families from Missouri, Florida and Texas gathered for Mother’s Birthday Season in 2013, Young Graham got to inspect the trucks.

We were on Kingsway long before Station 4

A letter from Fire Chief Rickard Ennis came to the house addressed to Mother. She, unfortunately, had moved to an address in the New Lorimier Cemetery by then, so I responded to it. The survey was designed to reassure what would be the neighbors of the new Station 4 that it wouldn’t be a nuisance.

Chief Ennis,

I received your survey addressed to Louis and Mary Steinhoff at 1618 Kingsway Drive. I’m responding in their behalf. Dad died in 1977, and Mother died June 22, 2015. I’m sure Mother would have wanted you to hear about her wonderful neighbors at Station #4. (See attached survey.)

Our house was built in 1956, long before Kurre Lane was extended and longer yet before Station #4 was built, as you can see in this aerial photo I took in 1966. Our house was the first of the three houses going down the hill from Kurre, the street running horizontally at the bottom of the photo.

Mother loved having the station across the street

Mother loved having your guys across the street. If she got her lawn mower hung up in the ditch in front of the house, they’d help her get it unstuck. If she went to the store to buy a 50-lb bag of bird seed, she’d wait until she saw someone in the parking lot and ask them to help her get it out of the trunk.

Several years ago, she experienced shortness of breath that turned out to be congestive heart failure. I’m convinced that one of the reasons she didn’t hesitate to dial 9-1-1 was that she knew the folks who would respond.

Sirens were the last thing that bothered her

I smiled a bit when I read the question about the nuisance rating relating to the noise of sirens.

As a newspaper director of photography, I had to make sure all the paper’s police and fire monitors were capable of receiving new systems that were changing all the time. That meant I had a huge surplus of old radios that would find themselves in Cape. I think she had a scanner in every room but the bathroom, and she might have carried a portable in there.

As soon as she heard a siren go out from the fire station or the ambulance company, she’d fire up the scanner closest to her to find out what was going on. That gene is possibly what caused me to end up in the newspaper business.

The station was an asset to the neighborhood

Far from lowering property values, I’ve always told folks that it’s a tremendous asset to have you and the ambulance company within a block of us. I’m sure there is a priority given to keeping Kingsway Drive’s street clear of snow and ice, and on keeping the power on in our area because of it.

Oh, yes, we have NO trouble hearing the warning siren, even in the basement.

In 2013, my grandson Graham came to Cape from Florida to visit his great-grandmother. Of course, we had to go look at the fire trucks. He was impressed with the size of the apparatus, and dug “driving” it and blowing the siren, but he wasn’t quite ready for the sound of the air horn, as you can tell in one of the photos.

Mother led a full and active life for most of her 93 years, only having a quick decline after the first of 2015. I came to Cape to assist her.

You didn’t have to dial 9-1-1 when Station 4 was across the street

One night she tumbled out of bed, tearing her paper-thin skin. I didn’t think it was an injury worth going to the emergency room in the middle of the night, but I wanted a second opinion and help picking her up off the floor. Instead of dialing 9-1-1, it was nice to be able to walk across the street to describe the problem.

They did a truck roll, bandaged her up, and helped lift her. I couldn’t have asked for a better crew to show up. The fact that she recognized them helped calm her down and reassure her that everything was going to be OK.

She told me of the rumors that Station #4 was going to be replaced. If that’s the case, I’m glad she left before you folks did. She’d have been heartbroken to lose her good neighbors.

The night before the move to the new station

I kept telling myself that I should document the old station before it was too late. When I got around to it, the guys told me I had cut it close: this was their last night before the move.

Mike Smith, Mike McLemore and Byron Stroer were kind enough to give me the run of the place for a few hours.

The last hours of Station 4

Sometimes you throw aesthetics aside and shoot for the record. That’s what these photos do. Click on any image to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move around. Note: there are two pages to the gallery. I didn’t notice that at first.

OK, Who Swiped It?

Mother loved to sit on the porch and watch the birds and squirrels.

I was feeling guilty the other day that I hadn’t put out any feed in over two years, so I bought a bunch of feed and put a couple new feeders in the back yard so I could see them if I got up from the computer.

Fuzzy-tailed rats

Even though Brother Mark calls them “fuzzy-tailed rats,” I enjoy watching squirrel antics, so I hung an ear of corn off the maple tree. In two days, it was mostly gone, so I replaced it last night.

This morning, I looked out the window and the corn was gone. I don’t mean the kernels had been stripped off; I mean the WHOLE darned thing was gone. I looked all over the back yard, and there was not a sign of it anywhere.

So, which of you had a hankering for corn in the middle of the night?

You can click on the photo to make it larger if you want to check for fingerprints.