Yesterday while working in my shop on a piece of black walnut, the lights went out. Candy was just starting to fix dinner. We decided since it usually takes a few hours for the lights to come back on we should go to town and have dinner and take in a movie.
As we were headed into town there was a car stopped in the driving lane just before a curve. As we slowed and got closer he turned on his flashers and moved forward enough for us to see the traffic in front of him was also at a stop. The side of a hill had come down and knocked some trees across the power wires. So we turned around and headed out to Cathlamet, WA for dinner. The is restaurant we stopped at has a pretty good burger. Candy had a chicken fried steak sandwich and was in love.
Fast forward to this morning and a call to the local power companies outage report line let us know they expected to have the lines repaired by 6:00pm. So back to Cathlamet and PJ's for breakfast. Another great meal. PJ's seems to be information central and we also met quite a few of our neighbors there also having breakfast since their power was also out. The waitress informed us the road was cleared but the geologist had to give an opinion on if the hillside was going to hold. We were later told it should be opened by 4:00. We had already planned to go to Astoria and check out the antique shops and such since we weren't going to have power all day. On top of all the other problems the ferry dock was having trouble with the hydraulics which put them out of service.
At the table next to us was Amanda and Vic who are moving into a home not far from us. They were coming the other direction last night when the landslide occurred. They ended up driving back to town and taking the long way around through Oregon to get home. My mention of woodworking got Vic excited and he said he would like to learn about woodworking. We exchanged phone numbers and addresses and plan to get together in the future. Candy and Amanda also found they had a lot in common including their height.
Back in April of 2011 we had a similar experience which ended up with me taking home a #10-1/4 carriage maker's rabbet plane:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...Road-Closes%85
Today the shop near Cathlamet was closed when we stopped by. I have heard the man who runs it has had some issues with his health. Hopefully he will be better soon.
We did go to one of our favorite antique malls in Astoria, Phog Bounders. That is the store that had a healthy collection of wood bodied jack and jointer planes mentioned in a current post about wooden bodied planes. It is also the antique mall where my #4-1/2 was found years ago for only $30, that is why we always drop in when we are out that way.
Today it was a different shop that turned up the coveted rusty tools:
Spoke Shaves in Astoria.jpg
Both of these for less than $30.
Now the power is on and the road is open, but it kind of makes me look forward to the next time we have to go the other way.
jtk
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