Our electricity went off Wednesday night at 11:00. Didn't get it back until Thursday afternoon at 4:02. IT WAS NOT-HEAVEN, I tell you!
Quite a storm rolled through. Surprising, since the TV meteorologists had been telling us we were only at Threat Level 2 (out of 5), and supposedly getting lots of rain. What we got were 80 mph sustained winds. And possibly a tornado, though the only one I heard about for sure was 14 miles west of us.
I was sitting at the kitchen table with HIPPIE. I'm used to rain and lightning and thunder, but the sound of this storm disturbed me. Sounded like the rain was blowing sideways against the front door. Meaning it was shooting in under the six-foot porch overhang. The lights flickered once. Twice. And stayed off the third time. At least I had a flashlight, courtesy of Saturday's outage.
We got a notice from the electric company (email for me, text for Hick) that our power was out, for unknown reasons, with no restore estimate. I know they can't get out and work in the middle of such a storm. That would be foolish. But like Hick says, they have someone drive along looking at the poles, to see where the lines are affected.
It was the longest night ever. After 2.5 hours of Free Cell Solitaire, HIPPIE's power was depleted. So I sat in the dark. It's usually my TV time. I nodded off on the couch around 3:00. At 5:21, I had a short nanosecond (as opposed to a lengthy nanosecond) of joy when I heard an email come in on my phone, and saw that OUR POWER HAD BEEN RESTORED! Then I noticed that I was reading it in the dark...
I woke up Hick to read it, especially the part where it said to check for tripped breakers. Hick looked out the octagon window in the bathroom, and said, "That's no breaker problem. The dusk-to-dawn light ain't on. They haven't fixed our issue."
Hick said a denizen of our enclave had put on Facebook that a 2-foot diameter tree had fallen across the road up by our third 10 acres, where HOS (Hick's Oldest Son) used to live. And that it had taken down the power lines. A lady got her car wrapped up in them. But managed to escape unharmed. I asked Hick how THAT was possible. To get a car wrapped in electric wires.
"Val. Just like when I got Scarlett's cable wrapped around the Gator tire."
Okay. We'll say Hick's the expert on that. Anyhoo... Hick sent a text saying O-U-T as instructed, to report that our power was still off. Huh. You'd think that stupid SMART METER they installed against our will could have told them that! What's the purpose of a smart meter if it can't do such a simple thing for you???
Anyhoo... Hick went off to town to work on the flip house by window-light if the power was off. It wasn't. Nor did we have any tree damage there, though houses all around did. Hick couldn't eat at the Senior Center because it was closed. He came home and tried to text O-U-T again, but the electric company was having none of that, and told him he had performed an illegal function! But they DID text a restore time of 4:00.
Hick opened up the garage door for me. I went to town unwashed. It was a waste of T-Hoe's gas! The bank was closed. The Sis-Town Casey's was closed. At least I was able to mail Genius's letter. The Pony had no power either, but the post office three blocks away did. He went to work as usual. At least he had water pressure, and water still warm enough for a shower.
With our power out for 17 hours, I was pretty sure all our food was garbage. But as soon as the power came back and Hick would allow me to open the freezer, we found our meat still frozen solid! I guess that's a good thing about keeping your freezer full. The only casualty appeared to be the ice cubes, which had become a bumpy solid block.
I was so thrilled to have electricity again that I didn't even complain to Hick about not rebuilding the carburetor on our generator, which he had set out to do six months ago...
Ugh! No electricity again? That makes for a long day doesn't it? We are really dependent on electricity these days. I hope your house didn't get too hot without A/C. Glad to hear that the freezer kept your food frozen.
ReplyDeleteIt was a 17-hour eternity! At least the sky was cloudy. Temps in the upper 70s with humidity in the 90s. Very oppressive outside. You could still feel the coolness when stepping into the house. It stayed around 74, I think, though I couldn't see the reading on the thermostat. We keep it set at 74 in the summer.
DeleteI was relieved that the food stayed cold. Had a leak out the bottom of the freezer door from the partially melted ice cubes, but it wiped right up. I think having the meat stacked worked wonders. As well as the freezer being full. I don't think our mini chest freezer in the laundry room even knew the power was off yet!
I'm glad all your food was saved. My ex has a fridge/freezer with the freezer part being the top section and had it packed full, but it still thawed when his power was off just over 24 hours. I think chest freezers hold the cold better too. He had to throw out everything.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised it lasted 17 hours. We have the side-by-side freezer. The whole left side of FRIG II. The ice in the bin at the top was about 1/3 melted. All the cubes had fused together.
DeleteThe stuff in the chest freezer was all stacked together, with no shelves leaving air space. The Pony has a top freezer. I don't know how full. His power was off 13 hours, I think. Probably mostly bags of stuff like chicken tenders. He said his refrigerator was nearly empty. Just butter (which is probably fine), and some cheeses.
I always try to keep my freezer stuff close together in the middle, has worked so far. The silence would have bothered HeWho, not me. 17 hours is a long time, you really need that generator! We have one in the RV and HeWho would have turned it on for air conditioning and say it was for the dogs and would volunteer to stay with them.
ReplyDeleteHick and Genius used to be quite efficient at wheeling that generator out of the garage, turning off the main power in the bathroom closet, starting the generator, and having more gas ready. Hick has great labels in the electric box, so we knew which breakers we could turn on. No AC, but we could run FRIG II, a couple lights, both TVs, my desktop computer, and the well pump. If I wanted to cook, some things had to go off!
DeleteHick wants to get one of those automatic generators that kick on if the power goes off. We'd have to get a propane tank to run it. The older we get, the more appealing it is.