Ice Out!

An ice storm came through on Thursday night that left us without electricity for a day and a half. I don't recall the storm seeming overly stormy and the next day it got sunny and things started melting, but the power didn't come back on. Luckily the Boyfriend is pretty magnificent when it comes to winter and survival. He had a fire going in the fireplace starting on Friday morning that kept us warm until we got power back this afternoon (Saturday). He also knew where to find the flashlights, candles and camping lanterns that kept us from being totally in the dark. 

He also recently purchased a solar/USB/ hand crank-powered combination radio and flashlight that let us get some news from the outside world. That's how we learned that about 300,000 of PSNH's 500,000 customer's were without power. The worst outages ever here in New Hampshire. 

I spent most of Friday moving from knitting to reading to playing my new DS game. 

By the afternoon I was getting stir crazy and it was nice out, so I decided to venture out in search of coffee. I stopped by my sister's house, which also had no power, and tried to call my mom, but her phone service was knocked out. A drive through town revealed that some neighborhoods and businesses had full power and were open and packed. 

Once the sun set it got cold and we ended up sleeping in the living room, near the fireplace. 

Saturday morning and we still had no power. I hung out for a while, but was getting really irritated at this no electricity thing. The charge on my cell phone had died overnight and I had no way to charge it and no way to get in touch with anyone, so I went out in search of a mobile charger that would work in my car. It looked like everything along Central Ave and all the big box stores in the neighboring town were open for business. At my fourth store I finally found a charger to work with my phone. I plugged it in and drove around a bit (after waiting in a drive-through line at Dunkin Donuts for some coffee) and finally was able to call my girl, who was at her dad's house that had never lost power through this whole ordeal. I was supposed to get her at noon, but couldn't even call her until 12:30 (there are no more pay phones anywhere!) and when I got a hold of her, I advised she stay there until I got power back at my house.

Once I got back home Boyfriend and I decided we would finally see what we could salvage from the fridge and freezer. It was a nice chance to clean them out, actually. Just as he carried the big cooler out onto the deck, the power came back on. Obviously we should have put all that stuff into the cooler last night because if we had, the power would have come back on then.

I went and got my girl, came home and took a shower and am now enjoying being clean, warm, and having access to all things electrical. One interesting thing about these winter weather events is that you get a chance to appreciate how it feels to be home with your people without any of the usual distractions. (On the flip side, I suppose that could be an uncomfortable scenario for some folks.) We were quiet, but I thought it was kind of nice and cozy.