02 November 2011

Let There Be Light. Please?

As my husband said, it’s like we’re living in a two room house with a sleeping loft.

Yes, we haven’t had power since Saturday afternoon. Halloween was cancelled, there was no school for two days, and there are tree limbs down all over the place.

It could be a lot worse; we have a generator. It’s powering the refrigerator and the freezer – so no lost food. We can plug the furnace in, so we have heat. There are extension cords snaking up from the basement, so there are two electric lights – one in the kitchen, one migrating back and forth from the dining room to the living room. A rotating cast of kitchen appliances gets plugged in as needed: coffee grinder, coffee maker, toaster, rinse and repeat. And – oh to glory be – the router is plugged in, so we have wi-fi in the house. We have hot water, because we never replaced the old inefficient hot water heater with a spiffy tankless one that needs power for its controls. And the gas stove works, if you light it with a match.

Oh, to be sure, there are problems. The dishwasher is full of dirty dishes. There’s a load of half-done laundry stuck in the washer – because it’s a front loader, it won’t open without power. I’m running out of clean pants. There’s no electricity upstairs, so we’re brushing our teeth by candlelight. But really? They’re first world problems.

I’m grateful for all that we do have.

That said, I really hope that ConEd makes good on its promise of full restoration by midnight tonight. I’m not holding my breath though: ConEd’s outage map says that there’s only one house out in my entire neighborhood – something I know to be patently untrue. And the town police just sent out an alert urging people without power to call ConEd – and that "If you do not call the number your power may not get restored."

Is that some kind of veiled threat?

Maybe it's time to go off the grid.

12 comments:

Bee said...

A few years ago I was in Texas for April and they had an unseasonal (to say the least) snow storm that knocked out the electricity for several days. It sounds like you are coping admirably, but I hope you return to full power SOON.

btw, I think you need more underwear . . .

Bibliomama said...

Wow. Since Sunday? Okay, first-world problems, but when you still have go to work in the first world that still has power every day, you need clean clothes, am I right?

Imperatrix said...

Yowks! What a fun adventure for your daughter to remember *later* though. I still remember the hurricanes we'd get when I was a kid in NJ -- filling the tub with water to have water usable for everything from washing things to flushing toilets, using candles for light, getting creative with food.

Hope your power returns soon, though. :-)

Neil said...

What are you neighbors doing who don't have a generator?

Angela said...

I'm with you all the way! Most of our town is still without power, but we were lucky to get it back on Monday. Our Halloween is postponed until Saturday, but I'm not counting on all the streets to be clear of downed power lines. Kids were disappointed, but are loving the lack of school (again too many downed power lines).

Going off the grid is NOT FOR ME!! We don't have a generator, but we did have heat (wood stove) and water (town). Gotta get a generator for the fridge and router ;).

Hope you are back on the grid soon!

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

Wow. That's a long time without power. It's amazing what you take for granted.

Here's to getting back on the grid!

Rima said...

I feel your pain. I was living in North Carolina when Hurricane Hugo hit and we didn't have power for two weeks. But I'm sure in your case it won't come to that.

MARY G said...

Been there.
Go buy underwear: good excuse to get rid of the old and worn ones.
The worst thing for me when the power came back on eleven days later was the dirt. Candle wax and wood chips and smoke stains and .........
Keep at them! Even if they sound annoyed.

shrink on the couch said...

Sounds more like a punt ... that the police need the power turned back on more than anyone.

leanne said...

Gosh, I hope you have had your power restored by now. Thank goodness for the generator though!

amira said...

Wowza. I hope it comes back on by tonight or sooner. This is one of the few times I can appreciate Houston's inability to have snow related issues because, well, we don't ever get snow.

MDTaz said...

First world problems. I remind myself that mine are just that, when I get carried away on a rant or a whinge. It doesn't palliate the inconvenience or annoyance, I suppose -- but it puts things in perspective.

And -- I hope you've got power now.