What a fan will do to watch Jericho

As most of you are aware, the Southern Missouri area was hit very hard with an ice storm of unprecedented magnitude. A bowling alley in Ava, Missouri that has stood for 30 plus years crumbled under the weight of almost two inches of ice Monday evening, several dozen 12 year olds barely made it out after the owner evacuated the building before the roof cracked and collapsed. Nothing is left of that bowling alley save for the foundation and the cement walls.

We had a breathtaking display of weather that night, freezing rain, sleet and ice mixed with severe lightning and thunder. We fought to keep DSL going, lost connection several times and the power blinked out at least twice, not because of the ice but the lightning.

Unfortunately, Tuesday morning I suffered a tree casualty in my Bradford Pear that sits in front of the house. I had gone to town (skating more like it, everything was iced over pretty good) and when I came back, 1/4th of the tree had fallen and taken out my power line and phone line.

Yep, and here it is the day that Jericho returns and there was a chance I wouldn't see it. Great way to start off the season!

We scrambled to get the power company out to get it taken care of and drat, there was like 1500 people without power and they put us on a list. A list! Holy COW, do these people NOT realize that the most important show on TV is going to air and I was going to miss it!?! The horror, the horror!!!

They told us not to hold our breath for Tuesday, if they weren't out by 5pm, they weren't going to be out until the next day. So I came to a horrible conclusion, I was going to miss it. No one else down here it seems is a Jericho fan, when I ran around during the campaign with a sign plastered on my car, I had 47 people (exaggeration.......it felt like 470 some days, I lost count) ask me 'What the hell is Jericho?' or my favorite, they got on the Bible kick and started ranting...to a Pagan. I endured for my show, by the Gods!

Needless to say, the clock was ticking closer to 5pm and I knew they weren't going to show so I resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be able to visit Jeritopia or the message boards until I could watch the episode. So I grabbed my knitting, pulled the futon closer to the furnace (the one time I can thank the Gods I had propane, I still had a heat source!), settled in and started knitting and purling. My roommate started doing origami (and yes, you come up with some strange ways to keep yourself occupied when the lights go out) and within an hour or so, we started getting restless. Jericho was drawing closer and the bazillion candles were being lit when my roommate suddenly shrieked and took off for her bedroom. I followed her thinking 'okay, she's lost it...no lights and she's gone wonky on me!' and I suddenly was bombarded as I hit her door with clothes, shoes and one flying cat (guess he got in the way)!

Before long, she suddenly stands up and yells 'WE'VE GOT JERICHO!' and hands me a battery operated color TV....with a two inch screen.

Yes, I watched Jericho on a two inch color TV screen in candlelight, with 200 lbs of dog holding my legs in place and two cats holding my arms down. I watched it all and was happy. We even changed out the batteries during the commercial break but wouldn't you know it, the last batteries we had didn't make it to the end. I saw the proposal, but after that, the screen went dark.

My question to all the fans out there is just what extremes would you go through to watch Jericho? In the middle of the worst ice storms Southern Missouri has seen in years, I had a part of a tree laying on my power lines, I couldn't make phone calls, I was LIVING the Jericho scenario and I STILL managed to watch it. Die hard fan? You better believe I am. And so is my roommate. Without her, I'd still be in the dark...figuratively.