Having grown up in a farming family (“make hay while the sun shines”), it’s second nature for me to keep an eye on the weather forecast. Earlier this month, the meteorologists started posting maps showing my location solidly in the pink range (meaning freezing rain) of an upcoming storm, so I had to take action. I always keep bottled drinking water (our well water isn’t fit for consumption), but I also started filling the empty jugs from the tap. I moved stuff from our refrigerator’s freezer section to the chest freezer in the basement. My husband made sure our generator was in good working order. I frantically completed several writing projects that were almost due and sent them off. I also worked feverishly on my tax prep and printed out my spreadsheets. I made sure all of my electronics were fully charged.
My husband even took a vacation day on Friday in case the roads were impassible.
I rescheduled a workshop I was supposed to teach Saturday on Zoom. Just in case.
The rain started Wednesday.
By lunchtime on Thursday I noticed ice collecting on the shrub by my front porch. The roads at that point were clear. My husband made it home from work with no problems Thursday evening.
About 7:00 p.m. the power went out. But it came right back on. I hurried to brush my teeth, wash my face, and get into my jammies.
At 8:00 the house fell dark and silent. I called on my cell to report it and was told by an automated voice that power would be restored by 11:00 p.m. that night. I knew they were lying.
Our house is all electric. ALL electric. So when the power goes out, we have nothing. No heat. No water. No stove. No phone. We went to bed. By 3 a.m. it started getting cold. Kensi Kitty wrapped herself around my head like a feline cap. I didn’t complain.
Overnight the rain turned to snow.
Friday morning Hubby set up our Big Buddy propane heater in the middle of our living room. It quickly took the chill off. He also fired up the generator, ran a heavy-duty extension cord through the hole he’d long ago drilled in the floor of one of our kitchen cabinets. I connected a surge protector into which I plugged the fridge, our phone chargers, and my laptop. He ran a second power cord to the freezer in the basement. We sat around the heater and proclaimed we were camping.
We used to love to go camping.
It’s not the same.
Kensi fell in love with the Big Buddy heater. Cats love warmth and Big Buddy was definitely warm. But Kensi’s not the brightest bulb in the box where an open flame is concerned. She would edge too close. I would snatch her away before her whiskers singed. We set her kitty cave close, but not too close, to the heater. She liked that.
Friday night I slept on the daybed next to Big Buddy. Kensi slept with me until about 3 a.m. when even Big Buddy couldn’t completely battle the chill (8 degrees outside). She plopped herself about six inches from the flame. From then until daylight, I had to keep removing her from the warmest spot in the house. She didn’t appreciate it.
I did not get much sleep.
On Saturday Hubby drove to town for more propane and gasoline and returned with reports of trees and lines down EVERYWHERE. A neighbor texted me that the power company estimated our service would be restored by 11 p.m. on SUNDAY. I sent out texts to let folks know I would not be participating in two other Zoom meetings.
The hours ticked by. Hubby set up shop at the kitchen table and tied flies in anticipation of spring and fishing. I read. And I started writing a new book.
Saturday night was a repeat of Friday where Kensi and Big Buddy were concerned. Again, I didn’t get much sleep.
By Sunday we were feeling pretty grungy. We’d been brushing our teeth, but outright bathing wasn’t an option.
I figured the extra layer of dirt might help keep me warm.
But Hubby had to go back to work on Monday, and they frown upon having their employees look and smell like a vagrant. We drove to my mother-in-law’s house to get hot baths. On the way, we passed SEVEN out-of-state power crew trucks working on our line!
On our way home, we picked up sandwiches at Subway and again passed the repair crews.
I should mention the conditions. They were working in a thicket of ice-encrusted overgrown brush and storm-flattened trees. Electric poles had snapped. Lines were down. It was COLD outside. I refuse to gripe about the time we had to “camp” in our living room. Well, at least the gripes aren’t aimed at the power company. It was a freakin’ disaster out there.
Sunday evening my neighbor texted me. The power company had robo-called her to announce repairs had been made and our power should have been restored. It hadn’t been. She let them know. Then she let me know. I may have cried a little.
About an hour later, a check of the power company’s website stated our power should be back on by Monday, noon. Another neighbor who lives near the aforementioned thicket texted us that the crew was back at work. At least we hadn’t gone back to the bottom of the list.
But we endured a fourth night with Big Buddy. A fourth night of minimal and very light sleep as I kept a close watch on Kensi.
Monday 4:00 a.m. every light in our house came on, my printers chirped to life in my office, our security system started talking to us. And the furnace started running.
I don’t think I’ve ever before jumped out of bed at that hour and started dancing.
We survived. I got a good start on my next Zoe Chambers mystery. And I have a renewed appreciation for the 21st Century.
Have you ever
been stuck without power for an extended period of time? If so, what did you do
to make it through the outage?
Such an ordeal, Annette! A few years ago we were without power for three days. We don't have a wood stove or fireplace - or generator - and it was getting COLD. Then I heard that power was on a mile away. Several of us occupied the Friends Meetinghouse - light, heat, and function electrical outlets! It was heaven. I also drove to a friend's house for a hot shower and a hot lunch. Also heaven.
ReplyDeleteWe still don't have a generator.
I feel your pain, Annette! We were without power for 12 days after a massive storm here in N.J. I'd get to work early each morning, shower in the company gym, and change into work clothes there. I still remember how excited I was the night I drove home in the winter darkness and saw lights in house windows in our neighborhood.
ReplyDeleteI've been without power when living on the grid, but never as long as that. Glad you survived and the back-up generator did what it was supposed to do.
ReplyDeleteEdith, I think there has been a run on generators around here since then! My grandnephew two houses over bought one. We're saving for a new, more energy-efficient one. During a 27-hour outage last summer, our old generator was on the fritz, and we lost a bunch of stuff in the fridge and freezer. I'm so glad my husband got it up and running this time.
ReplyDeleteMally, 12 days!!??? I remember an 8-day outage in the dead of winter when I was a teenager. That was awful! I totally under your excitement of seeing your house with lights!
Jim, the generator and the propane heater were lifesavers.
Annette, what's crazy is that we have fabulous solar panels on the roof, but they are tied into the grid and we don't have a storage battery for them. That might have to be our next big investment!
ReplyDeleteEdith, I so wish we had solar panels! Yes, I think you need a storage battery for sure!
ReplyDeleteCincinnati wind storm 2008. We had no power for four days. It was September, cool enough not to need the a/c but warm enough not to need the furnace. Though school was cancelled, my daughter had soccer practice every day. A neighbor told me Walmart had a fresh shipment of cold cuts. Something new to eat! First power, and finally, cable and internet.
ReplyDeleteThis is still amazing to me in 2022. It’s like reading Whittier’s “Snowbound” from the 1800s. It’s good that you, your husband and the cat have great survival skills.
ReplyDeleteAw hot water, heat, cozying up with a good book... all the things we take for granted. Glad you, the hubby, and the cat are back to normal.
ReplyDeleteOh, Annette! I feel for you. We’ve not had long power outs in Maine – ten hours was tops and we have a gas range for cooking and two woodstoves that heat the entire house. They’ve been lifesavers. Florida was a different matter. Two weeks no electric. thank you hurricanes Wilma and Irma. We had a gas hot water heater and range during Wilma - that helped. We lived in an all electric house during Irma. Help….we melted 😊
ReplyDeleteMargaret, four days really feels like forever when you have no electricity. Thank goodness the temperatures weren't a big issue.
ReplyDeleteSusan and Debra, my husband likes to fancy himself a mountain man. I found it amusing that he was as sick of roughing it in our living room as I was! But yes, all those years of primitive camping and the gear we accumulated for it definitely came in handy.
Kait, I think no power when it's steamy hot is worse than when it's cold. We had the propane heater to keep us tolerably warm, but there's no respite from the heat and humidity when the AC doesn't work.
Always amazes me how we have incorporated our electric power so thoroughly into our lives, we hardly realize how much we depend upon it until we don't have it.
ReplyDeleteSince a power outage completely disrupts our lives, maybe I can take the opportunity to bake some bread. Wait. The bread machine doesn't work. Or the oven.
I can catch up on TV shows I've been meaning to watch. Oh, that's right. No TV.
How about working on my computer. The power is off to the desktop, but I still have the laptop. Until I realize the the battery has run down.
Well, there's always reading. I have a few things on my Kindle I've been meaning to get to. But the battery on that is low, too.
I haven't had a marathon phone conversation with a good friend in a long time. The house phone doesn't work. I do have a cell phone. But no signal.
Maybe just go to bed early. The power should be on by morning.
Can I use some of the hoarded water supply to wash up? Or save it for drinking and flushing? And my electric toothbrush doesn't work.
Good night, and hope for miracles from overworked crews out to save our world.
KM, one saving grace was the weatherman's forecast. I saw this Ice Age coming well in advance and charged EVERYTHING from the laptop to the cell phones to the Kindle...even my rechargeable hand vac. Of course, that only lasts so long, which was when the generator came in handy. But yes, a power outage is truly paralyzing.
ReplyDeleteOur power went out regularly when we lived in the woods of northeast Tennessee. The power company was flummoxed by that and finally blamed it on cows down the road. Cows? Really? Hmm. We were never out for as long as you and Mally, but long enough to be glad we heated with wood and could cook on the woodstove, too. That was before computers and other electronics and we didn't have TV reception, either. Water was a problem, though, because the well pump was electric. The boys usually saw the outages as adventures and were disappointed when the power came back on.
ReplyDeleteCows? Well, our neighbor's cows used to rub their itchy hides on the guy wire of the electric pole next to our property. They rubbed so hard the pole and the lines would shake. But they never knocked the power out.
ReplyDelete