Second Bad Joke of the storm:
"I should hire
Crystal Gale to sing my new country song. "I had Frost Heaves in my Sleep"..."
(I really did!)
How do you survive 3 days of no power or heat at home during n after a blizzard? when there's a driving ban, no work, n No one in town is spared?
I'm very fortunate the downstairs apartment has a gas stove. The oven has no way to get the pilot lit when powers out, but I used the two front burners to heat water on the lowest setting, n kept the side of the house with pipes from going below 40 F degrees.
Every few hours I took trips up n down the stairs carrying pans or the kettle of steaming water upstairs, where I filled glass jars, pans n bowls with hot water to keep as warm as possible. I kept two small jelly jars of warm water in my pants pockets all day.
I turned on all the sink n tub faucets so the water wouldn't freeze up. Luckily I had a "No Heat Drill" just two weeks ago. This time tho was no power or heat. Then I at least had the little electric heaters to fall back on...
After the first Day, the temp was still about 50F upstairs. The second day tho, the whole place was below 43F. The downstairs hallway by the door measured 27 F degrees, while the frig was 40F, so I put the most perishable food out in the hallway.
I considered putting some freezer food outdoors, but I know the animals would likely rip into it. Between the stray cats, opossum, n skunks there'd be a big party-. I did plastic bag some free ice from outside to put in the frig for the rest of the food.
The small, bargain, frozen turkey I was saving for Easter time became partially thawed, so I decided to thaw it the rest of the way, n am eating it this week, all week instead. By Day Off I should be at the make soup stage.
After finally building up my freezer supply again since Hurricane Irene, I now have to go thru it all n try to find the still edible n safe stuff to salvage. It'll take me awhile.
Then I lost hours on two different paychecks which messes up my finances, nullifying the catch up I needed to do with my tax return funds. Many things are waiting again.
After returning to work, the Valentine's holiday orders exhausted the little energy I had left after three days of snow-shoveling. I had fewer days for the week, n longer shifts than usual. Only got one Day Off to get ready for the next five workdays, which I'm in the middle of now.
I'm still run-down n exhausted from not being able to sleep long in the cold conditions. I slept in so many layers of clothes n blankets I could barely move! I kept the comforter all the way over my head to hold in my breath exhaust heat. Poor Mischief had a trouble staying warm too. Three hot bottles were just for her.
Without those Hot Water bottles, I wouldn't have been able to deal with the cold at all. But I had to constantly work at keeping warm enough. Just sitting wasn't comfortable enough for reading very long.
Luckily, the past year I'd invested in tons of cheap (Dollar Tree) lights, little Flashlights, battery candles, book lamps, plus batteries. I used my trusty, glowing, glass snowman, n the battery powered ghost candle.
When running up n down for hot water, I found the strap-on "Head Lamp" found for $5 at Target this fall was great for hands-free light.
The other "must have" for days without power is the 12-volt car battery jumper with an AC port to recharge my cell phone with. I could've plugged in a light, but decided the phone was more inportant when uncertain how many days I'd be waiting.
The long nights wide awake were the toughest part for me. I mostly listened to radio while reading. I played guitar several times, but the instrument was too cold to hold for long. I had to stop n warm up my hands on hot water bottles, then do another song until fingers got too achy-cold again. That was tough!
Mostly I missed blogging n watching tv in tandem per usual. I felt very alone except for a few "Are you ok?" texts each day. I missed feeling connected. No one else here could afford to waste phone juice. Some folks cell phones weren't connecting at all, either.
Hearing in the news we might have to wait until after Tuesday or Thursday for power in town was difficult to fathom how to endure it-
The worst part tho were the few repeated times the power flickered, raising hopes, n then went out a long time again. That happened Sunday evening several times. I noticed out the window that lights were on across the cove, but mine stayed out all night, seemed like an eternity- until power was finally running "On" for a few minutes before noon on Monday.Whew!
I'm so grateful to have the power back again. That was the first freezing temps, winter, days duration, Power Out I've ever gone thru. The other occasions were all in more tolerable temps or only a short while. I'm really not recovered yet, as evidenced by fatigue, n generally not feeling good. I hope to never do that again!
NOTE: Sorry I've been unable to blog read much this week. My computer keeps crashing. In many cases I went n read, but lost Windows n the connection before commenting. Then other times, I just fell asleep while reading... Maybe next week...
Last week I also skipped a day of sleep for a field trip. I'll share some pics from that in other posts soon. That was also several frozen hours outside, with a windchill reported to be 18F (-7.7C) . Needless to say, catching up on sleep n warmth is taking priority this week as the (40F) rain dominates my free time, n there aren't more pressing issues.
