North Andover Blog

Will you TiVo the inauguration?

Posted on January 5, 2009 by Renee Buckley
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Like many people around the country, I’ll be working on Inauguration Day 2009, but want to watch all of the festivities associated with this historic event.

With Barack Obama’s swearing in at noon sharp, it’ll be hard to catch unless your workplace has a television, or you are able to catch it online. And even then, preliminary festivities begin at 10 a.m. and run all day (Aretha Franklin is singing!).

I guess the only way to take this all in - short of calling in sick - is to record it. Will you be doing the same?

What’s on your mind for 2009?

Posted on December 30, 2008 by Renee Buckley
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Are you a winter person?

Posted on December 21, 2008 by Renee Buckley
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Has your holiday shopping taken a hit?

Posted on December 16, 2008 by Renee Buckley
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Lessons learned after an ice storm

Posted on December 15, 2008 by Renee Buckley
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Sitting in my kitchen now with the lights glowing, my laptop humming and, most importantly, my heat flowing, I’m lucky to say I didn’t suffer any great losses as a result of last weekend’s major power outage.

Sure, we had to throw out a recently stocked freezer full of food, but other than that, we got away unscathed. But I wasn’t unaffected.

I’ve learned some great lessons from this outage, most important of them: I need to thank my lucky stars everyday for my warm house and refrigerator full of food. As my husband and I wandered from warm spot to warm spot from Friday through Saturday night, I, like many others, realized just how much I take for granted. Now, with a full 24 hours of electricity behind me, I’m happy to say I’m still basking in it, and expressing my silent thanks for all that it does for me.

But how long with that last? How long before I cry, “I’m so BORED. I’ve got to get out of this house. I’m getting cabin fever!”

That’s a common complaint of mine. And believe me, was I eating my words this weekend when all I wanted to do was be able to be in my house without a full suit of winter armor on, fumbling around in mittens in the dark, wielding a flashlight.

Speaking of flashlights, that brings me to the other big lesson I’ve learned: Always have a flashlight, or five, in the house!

When our lights went out Thursday night (or was it early Friday morning?) all we had to light our way was a candle and our cell phones. (Of course, had we known we’d be without power for days, we never would’ve wasted our cell phone battery power for light.) Following that evening of arguing in the dark over where in the world could the flashlight be (it was last seen with my husband the night he hung our outdoor holiday lights, but I digress), my first order of business the next day was to stock up on flashlights. And I did.

Of course, what good are flashlights without batteries? Apparently everyone in my town had plenty of flashlights already, because by the time I’d purchased my two and went to buy the required batteries, no store within a 10-mile radius of my home had any in the size I needed - D.

Eventually we found batteries, and found a friend with a wood stove (but no power) to host us for the evening. Then, we were left with just the company of each other to entertain ourselves. Huddled around the fire, with five flashlights glowing, we were forced to do nothing but be together. And it was nice. So nice.

But, when almost full day later we headed over to our own neighborhood and saw one, then another, then another house light glowing on our street, you better believe we were jumping for joy. We love our friends, but we love our electricity, our heat, our power, too!

Another Romney run?

Posted on December 9, 2008 by Renee Buckley
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Poll: Did you shop on ‘Black Friday?’

Posted on December 1, 2008 by Renee Buckley
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“Did governor blow it with ‘cynics’ remark?”

Posted on November 24, 2008 by Renee Buckley
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Did you catch the North Andover Veterans Day video? See it here

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Renee Buckley
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If you couldn’t make it out to North Andover’s Veterans Day services last week — or, if you want to relive it — experience it here by checking out our video. You’ll catch the NAHS Marching Band, Veterans Agent Ed Mitchell, local Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts and more.

For the video, click here, then scroll half-way down the page to the YouTube box inserted in the middle of the story.