Our Power Outage Adventure

[Photo by Nestor Galina.]

Our power finally came back on this afternoon after a couple of cold, dark nights.

Staying Warm

We heated the house with candles and stove-top burners (propane). We found that if you get enough candles lit in a room, it really can make a difference, and the stove was able to keep the kitchen in the upper-50’s, even above 60 degrees at times, which was pretty comfortable. We dressed in lots of layers and wore gloves, drank a plenty of coffee and hot chocolate, listened to oldies on the battery-powered radio, and went to bed early each night. (Hooray for sleeping bags!)

The Family That Freezes Together…

The second night, most of the people around us had power. Some neighbors invited us to sleep over at their house, but none of us wanted to do anything that involved going outside, and we kept hoping the power company would come through in time. No luck.

The windchill was supposed to be something like 21 degrees below zero, and we knew that would cool the house down fast, so we piled all five of us plus both dogs into the downstairs bedroom and shut the doors to keep in body heat. The cats pawed at the doors all night, wanting to join us, but they have a bad habit of knocking all the stuff off the dresser when they get bored. They have fur coats, so they were fine — they just didn’t like feeling left out.

The room was cold, but not unbearable. When I got up, though, the rest of the house had dropped down to 43 degrees. Brr!

What Do You Mean, Snow Day?

Even though classes were canceled, Niner worked on her physics homework by kerosene lamp light. Chickenfoot was working on something, but it didn’t look like homework — planning another video, perhaps?

And poor Kitten is still homeschooled, so she didn’t even get a day off! Actually, I offered her the choice, but it was too cold to go outside. And with no power, there wasn’t much she could do, so having school work kept us from being bored.

Three Cheers for the Hard-Working Utility Guys

I think the power company secretaries got tired of everyone calling in for updates. They changed their phone message to say: “We don’t know when the power will be back on. We suggest you make other plans. But if you need to report a downed power line, please hold for the next available operator.”

Everything is back to normal now. It was nice to have the family (at least, those still at home) all together for awhile, sharing an “adventure” of sorts. Niner heated up Tostitos Salsa Con Queso in a skillet and we stood around the stove and took turns dipping tortilla chips. It was so good that she had to make more, twice. But now we’re all scattered off to our own rooms, doing our own things…

Take care, and keep warm.