More about the Power Outage - The Longest-Shortest and Darkest Day of 2013

My "white" maple on December 24

We did not have to sing or dream about a white Christmas this year. We had snow (and ice) aplenty by Christmas--a beautiful scene indeed. But at the close of winter solstice day, the shortest day of the year, my television screen clicked and flashed a few times, in the death throes of a power outage--and we were plunged into the longest and darkest day of the year.

Wires, thickened with ice, snapped. Heavy laden branches crashed down on other electric wires. Nature can be cruel ... and as long as we have vulnerable lines above ground, we will occasionally suffer storm effects. You might say we were "Under the Dome" of a very bad winter ice storm.

Hundreds of thousands of people in Michigan were without electricity last Sunday, maybe not noticing until that morning. I heard from several of my friends in the area that were untouched and we called Aunt V. to find that she was also fine, but I wonder how everyone else managed the day.

Today (Thursday) the last of the majority of Michigan Consumer Power customers were supposed to have been restored. Crews came from all over the country to help. It must have been dreadful working in all that snow and cold, with ice covering everything. But whatever they did, it was not good enough. Everybody wanted their heat back on now, to be able to fully enjoy the Christmas holiday. Hundreds, maybe thousands spent Christmas in a shelter.

 It has been about 10 years since we lost electric for more than a day because of a winter storm. This time we were more prepared! That handy little generator we bought late last year ran our refrigerator and other necessary appliances (like our coffee maker!) but not at the same time. When I plugged in the George Foreman grill to cook hamburger for the crock pot shepherd's pie we had planned, the generator groaned in protest. So I operated one appliance at a time, running extension cords from the garage and through the kitchen. First, grind beans, unplug, then make coffee; then plug in the grill to cook thick bacon slices, then plug in the toaster for some (frozen) waffles. (That was Monday morning breakfast.)

We could have gone out to eat, I suppose, but we did have a way to make it work here. As night fell, we found everyone a flashlight to light the path to the bathrooms. We did not need candles anywhere, since we had at least one lamp on, along with the light from the fireplace, which kept us toasty. It is great that water works when the electric is out. Imagine if we had electric toilets. All that white snow would have been streaked with yellow! At least we could all *poop in the house (quickly, in the chilly bathrooms located on the cold end of the house) during the outage.

At one point we plugged in the Christmas tree into our private little multiple outlet grid. We wondered if our neighbors thought we must have electric back on over here.

Our lights went out late Saturday night and it was getting cold by morning. All churches were cancelled on Sunday morning, and I received a plea from the "young marrieds" to come and rescue them. Their cars were stuck in their detached garage and they couldn't find the key. And it was getting cold. My 4-wheel drive vehicle is parked outside. I warmed it up, turning the heater on full blast, so the thick layer of ice would slide off the windows more easily with a scraper.

By Sunday late afternoon lights were on all around us, including our back yard neighbors, but neither of our houses was on a functioning grid. Our lights returned at 11:30 AM the next day--exactly 36 hours later, and the kids had light and heat by latter afternoon. We took them to work and picked them up; we drove them home to take a warm shower in a cold house and to empty their freezer into ours.

A few last minute Christmas gifts were not ordered Sunday, since the Internet was also down, but that was the least of our problems.

After a day with the four of us huddled into two rooms with one lamp and a gas stove fire and having to sleep on the sofas, we were sick of "camping out." While realizing we were more advantaged than many, it was not how we wanted to live--even for a day. The delight with the fact that we could keep warm in the storm and run a few appliances wore thin very quickly as the day and night dragged on.

It was my first experience with the noisy generator running in the garage (door half-open) all day. Every couple of hours I filled the tank with gas. I had to go out to buy more. We shut the generator off overnight. We will try to finish all the food that might have been somewhat compromised (not really) during the outage in our fridge and garage freezer. I just want to start the year fresh, anyway. You know, only healthy choices next year, after holiday indulgences. I have ordered the husband to bring home no more pizza or waffles and absolutely no more mashed potatoes from Costco.

*one poop per post per usual

Christmas Eve Day - the sun shone for awhile