It’s the absolute truth. I love electricity. I love all that it does for me. It powers my life in so many ways and when I don’t have it I get a little bit crabby.
Yep.
Me.
Crabby.
We were preparing for winter storm Diego (is it a coincidence that that is the name of my beautiful grand kitty?) on Friday. I made a flight home from Ohio, got delayed a tiny bit, got a quick dinner, went to a wonderful Chorale concert at the Clubhouse and then went back out grocery shopping with Chris to prepare.
We thought we were prepared but in reality we weren’t . We never lose power here and if we do it is only for an hour or so but it is very rare. But this time along with the 18 inches of snow we lost power.
It went off for a few hours on Saturday and then came back on for a couple of hours. We have a plethora of candles and flashlights so it was not a big deal. But then it went off and stayed off.
For 60 hours.
I was ill prepared.
Do you know what all takes electricity? Everything.
Our cell phones have no reception at our house so we rely on wifi calling and texting. Nada.
Our landline is a cordless phone. No service.
Our heat pump takes electricity. Nope. Not going to work.
Microwave, oven and stove all electric.
Hot water heater. Electric.
But on the plus side we have a gas fireplace in the living room that we used to heat our space. Chris kept a careful eye on keeping things warm.
We also have a gas grill so we used that for heating water for coffee and tea (must have morning coffee) and cooking some meals. Eggs and bacon, chili, sausage, etc. all helped keep our bellies full.
We had 5 minutes of power on Monday night and as I was dancing around the house singing at the top of my lungs it went out. I might have scared it. Another 12 hours in the dark. When it came on at 9 am on Tuesday we were cautiously optimistic.
Our schedules have been altered and we have ditched plans for a extended weekend trip to San Diego due to Chris having business to do and me having Christmas to prepare for. After all those cookies won’t bake themselves.
We are still waiting for our driveway to get plowed and hopefully by tomorrow it will be but I am not holding my breath. A non cordless phone has been ordered for future emergencies. We have decided that we need an emergency container just like I have a Beach container that always stays stocked for our beach excursions.
Live and learn. I guess we expected this in Iowa but not in North Carolina.
I am happy to bid Diego goodbye. And guess what? I read 4 books. Win win.
One thing is for sure. Buddy and Holly were happy when the electricity came back on and their heated cat bed worked again.
What’s the longest you have been without electricity? Leave a Comment for a Cause.
21 Comments
Leave a commentBeing without electricity truly makes you realize how much we depend upon it, doesn’t it? A few weeks ago, an ice storm knocked out power in our area for nearly 50,000 people. We were so thankful we didn’t lose ours. Generators were flying out of the stores like wildfire and there weren’t any to be found. Thank goodness for those utility workers who work out in all kinds of weather and dangerous conditions to restore our power. 🙂
I agree! Those guys (and gals) work tirelessly and don’t get enough thanks that is for sure. I am glad we have our power again–now to get that driveway cleared.
I guess I am not grateful enough for gas everything. That is a lot of snow to have dumped on you. Candle light can only take you so far and the lack of internet is so annoying. It looks like you were very innovative, tho, and did the best you could with what you had on hand. I suspect most of would be crabby lf we were in your snow shoes for too long. Glad the power is up an I hope you are plowed out soon!
Thanks, Katybeth. It is all good. We are still waiting to get plowed out and I said to Chris yesterday “remember when we lived in Iowa and lived on a corner lot and swore we would never do that again?” Well, we have a long steep driveway now. I am thinking there is a lesson to be learned here as well. Honestly we don’t normally get a lot of snow here—or so they say. Hopefully this is the one of the year.
10 days- Oct 1991 without electricity in North Iowa was brutal! No running water, heat, etc… After 4 days, a neighbor loaned us one of their portable generators. Since then, we have been better at being prepared for no electricity. This past summer we lost power several times from wind events and the longest was 28 hours and it was a long, hot 28 hours! Glad you are up and running.
Ugh. I remember your incidents this summer and they were not fun by any means. I keep thinking I am in Iowa!
Sixty hours is a long time to be without power. I would be crabby, too. We were without for a day after the September tornado and that was too long for me. Or was it two days? I’ve forgotten. Did you lose any food? That was one of our top concerns.
Eighteen inches is way too much snow. Even by Minnesota standards for a single storm.
Here’s hoping you get plowed out today and that no more major storms come your way.
We survived. The freezer in the garage was fine but we lost some stuff in the fridge and freezer in the house. We ate what we could but you know what? I used it as a time to purge all the stuff I probably should have purged before. We lost some stuff but not a major amount so that was good. Winter storm Diego just hit us just right and hopefully it is a one of this year. Plow guy texted and said he has broken 3 plows during this and promised to be here on Friday. I am not going to hold my breath. We have tried others and they all have the same story. The snow now is just coated in ice due to it freezing at night again. It’s all good. As long as we have electric I am happy!
Wow, you did have a BIG SNOW STORM!!! When we don’t have electric it does throw us for a loop. Glad it is back.
Me, too! I am such a wimp! Give me the creature comforts of home anytime.
That’s a LOT of snow at once even for up here. We got zero snow. Something seems wrong about that. When we lose power we have no water and no heat, no sump pump, plus no lights etc. So we put in a whole house generator. We had been without power for up to 3 days before. Now we’re never without it
We have talked about a generator a few times but honestly it has not been an issue before . We really didn’t suffer all that much–the temps in the house were in the low 50’s and we were able to save everything in the outside freezer. I read a lot and we talked. Imagine that!
I had no idea you had this storm! You have a Minnesotan amount of snow there. At least you can chill stuff from your fridge in it;) 60 hours is a long time. Glad you had the resources to stay warm!
It was a Minnesotan storm for sure. Hopefully today we will get dug out –it is supposed to be in the 50’s today and tomorrow it rains so if nothing else the rain will hopefully melt it a bit. As long as the temps don’t dip again we should be okay. Lesson learned—even though you have a snow removal person lined don’t count on getting out . He broke 3 plow blades. Of course we don’t have the great snow removal equipment that you guys have.
Glad you’re surviving! My home’s been freezing in the dark since Sunday morning (long status update post today). Even while limiting myself to ONE electric light, ONE small electric fire in winter or fan in summer, and the ONE circuit that will power two of the four computers at one time…I miss those things, boohoohoo.
Saw the utility guys on the road this morning. They had reports from me on one side of the hill, from a sick patient on the other side. I hope they’ve restored service on both sides by now but they’d have to be awfully fast to do that. I don’t want them to connect me first.
Oh goodness. Yes, I am really dependent upon electricity and even though I don’t like to admit it —I am really sad when I do not have connectivity. I hope by the time you read this you and your neighbors have the power back on.
That is so cool that you grilled! I don’t want to jinx myself so I’m not going to comment about power losses. But, yes, very thankful for power. Losing internet is bad enough. Good for you and Chris- you are troopers! Now get those cookies baked.
Well, Chris grilled! We ate fine and didn’t really miss a beat with that but not having internet and being connected with the outside world was difficult. I am still catching up on things that I missed.
Wow. So glad you were able to keep warm with the fire place. Couldn’t imagine having no power and no heat. I don’t think I’ve ever been without power for longer than a few hours. We usually leave for any of the major hurricanes where we ended up losing power so it didn’t really affect us. I’m hoping I never have to go through it.
I got out yesterday for breakfast with the girls and then Chris and I went into town for dinner and groceries later which was fabulous. Just knowing we could get out of our driveway was an incredible feeling. 🙂
We always, i repeat… always lose electricity when there’s a storm. No h20, no heat, nada. Every time, we fill buckets for toilet flushing and keep oodles of extra ice on hand just in case.