Lights out

A storm blew halfway across the country on Friday, wreaking havoc.  We lost power at 9pm on Friday.  After realizing it would not be on anytime soon, I began taking a few notes:

Sunday, Day 2 without power

Picked up Trevor. No ice in Lynchburg, but we found it in Farmville, two hours away. Got home early afternoon to find water shut off. Crazy!

Ice cream turned to milkshake consistency, so it was a free for all!

We drove around looking at damage in the neighborhood. We are lucky. So many trees down, some taking out sheds; many across roads; one went through a house a few blocks away. We lost a big limb in the backyard—thankfully, it fell right between two neighbors' fences, instead of on either.

 Hard to see in this pic, the blue tarp on the right is covering a big hole in the roof. There were some of the biggest trees we've ever seen blown over in this yard, with another blocking most of the road.

We'd already considered going out to dinner at Alejandro's, but the lack of water completely cinched that decision.

Kids slept downstairs in the basement.

Monday, Day 3 without power

We got water from a nearby creek and can flush toilets. This makes us very happy.

While we are getting our newspaper, I'm getting many more current updates from my dad (who lives in Phoenix). Local radio stations are still out. Dad told me that our water should be back on today. I found out that the water district is getting in six generators from Florida to crutch our system through until power is restored.

I took the kids to a nearby library so we could plug in for awhile.

Water came back around 6pm. Yippee!!! The first thing I did was wash dishes.

We are slowly emptying fridge/freezer. Robert made amazing french fries on the barbeque—not bad, considering they'd defrosted! He used a pan, and also bbqed hotdogs, so we had what basically amounted to salchipapas. Dessert was a frozen coconut cream pie that had also defrosted.

I continue to think about the 350 families in Colorado who would love to return to their homes, even without power or water. Instead, their homes burned to the ground. It puts things in perspective, that's for sure.

We continue to be told that power in our county should be restored on Saturday. (Yes, that means it will have been out for eight days.)

Tuesday, Day 4 without power

The first two days, I missed my morning coffee the most, followed distantly by the dishwasher.

The top of my list today would probably be cold food. A washer and dryer. And still coffee, definitely coffee.

Kids came with me to work all day. They stayed cool and plugged in.

Robert did laundry at the laundromat, found dry and regular ice and set up a series of coolers in the kitchen.

Holly and Trevor leave in eight days for Seattle. I realized we really have to get our state mandated (homeschooling) testing done asap. As in tomorrow.

Wednesday, Day 5 without power

A bit of relief from the heat, relatively. The house got down to 76 degrees, but it's pretty humid out. Most of our neighbors have left. I think we are one of two families still here at the end of our street. Some other yahoo neighbor is running a generator 24/7. Sounds like a tractor under my window. Holly continues to sleep in the basement, and Robert has slept down there for the past two nights.

Cleaned out the refrigerator this morning and discovered that we have loads of condiments. I don't think refrigeration is that vital to most of my condiments, so having lots of them is a good thing. Trevor had two pickles with (not for!) breakfast.

I am really proud of both kids for hanging in there with this. They don't even complain about cold showers, taking them regularly.

At 5:00 tonight, the power kicked back on! Woohoo! This was totally unexpected. Definitely the first thing we used/appreciated was the A/C. And lights! Trevor mentioned his wish to take a hot shower (although he'd taken a cold one just a few hours earlier).

What I really didn't miss: socializing on the internet. Yes, I missed getting my news, but that was it, and that surprises me. Holly, Trevor and I played more board games, and I liked that.  It wasn't all bad.

So we had a delayed/laid back 4^th of July. We ate the corned beef that had defrosted this week. Robert had cooked it in a pot on the barbeque. No side dishes (!), although Robert ate a few stalks of celery, and I made horseradish sauce for the meat. We drank the red/white/blue drinks since we had ice. I made 4^th of July brownies, but it will be very late (11pm) by the time we eat them.

Back to regular life tomorrow.