OKA-A-A-Y! THAT was interesting!I'm writing this (joyfully!) at around 1pm on Saturday, the 12th. Last night, at 7pm, power was restored to our home, having been absent since about 10:30am, Friday, the 4th. That would be 8 (eight) days and 7 (seven) nights of creative living, here, on Echo Glen Rd.--a length of time no one in the area can quite fathom, even up here.
We knew the storms were coming, and we knew that the middle one was going to be a doozie. I went to the market to stock up (on all the wrong things, as it turns out) and everybody else was there, too. Busier than Christmas, the checker told me. Thursday, the 3rd, was blustery and wet, but, early Friday morning, all heavens broke loose, with furious winds and rain and hail, but mostly wind, certainly like we've never experienced! It was fun! Wild! Of course, we were snug in our nice sturdy house, doing our usual stuff, when the internet went down, about 9am. A hassle for Tom, for sure. He prepared to go find a connection, somewhere out there in the crazy weather. I had been checking my email, getting ready to catch up on a bit of blogging. No worries. I'd just do an entry in Word and copy it over, when the internet's back up. Then, before I could save it (gasp!--a major loss to the blogging literature of our day), the power went down. Oh, well. Then the phone. Yikes! Tom did go to a bakery with free internet (!), but he wasn't alone. He didn't stay long because he couldn't get close to an outlet. You would be right in guessing that this whole thing came at a very critical time in the work he does, naturally. A few branches had blown down on our little road, but he was able to move them.
We assumed, of course, that we would be powered up, again, shortly, as in the past. We had flashlights, candles (in boxes somewhere in the garage), and a few flushes left. That's right. When the electricity goes out, in our house, the water can't get from the well to the pipes. The furnace doesn't work, but we have a woodstove in the living room. No problem. Kinda fun. Kinda cozy. Time to learn how the thing really works. I found (my impressive collection) of chunky candles. And more candles-in-a-jar than I remembered ever having. We lit them all over the place, upstairs, downstairs, on-the-stairs. The stove in the kitchen uses propane, so, instead of the electronic ignition, I can just fire 'em up with a butane lighter. Easy. So, I cooked by candlelight. I even made banana pudding, for dessert (a rare occurrence, indeed), because the occasion seemed to call for something a bit special. I found a booklight for Tom to use for crosswords for the evening, and I tried to knit/read/whatever (unsuccessfully) in the dimness. Not that much to do, but go to bed early. Nothing did we know of the next little adventure waiting in the wings...
