The Ice Storm...Thawing out...

I will never ever again take heat and electricity for granted...

Our power went out sometime during the night on Thursday. It was finally back up and running sometime late yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. I knew this storm was going to be a whopper , and thought i was prepared, but i was mistaken. Sometime during the night on Thursday i woke to that awful sound of electrical wires down. There was a loud POP and some humming and sizzling sounds, accompanied by bright flashes of light, and the power was gone. We've had plenty of power outages, and they have lasted for a day or so. Mildly annoying. I can't use the computer...no television...no cooking....But this was different. Once we got up on Friday morning we realized how isolated this storm made us feel. EVERYTHING was coated with ice. ALL power was out. Slowly i began to realize what that meant. No stove to cook on(electric), no clocks to tell time...no music or news....no phone except for the cell i had thankfully just charged the night before...no heat except for the little gas stove that we had cranking the whole entire time. ( i love that little stove) Thankfully that kept the house a little warmer than those who had no extra heat source, but by Saturday night our indoor temps were in the low 40's. We managed to stay warm by wearing layers (thank goodness for sweaters!) and at night we piled extra blankets on the bed and in came the three dogs with us. We slept in an amazingly warm pack. The two scariest things for me...No hotels available anywhere around us and the garage door was powered by a backup battery that would only last 2 days and then Bill would not be able to get out of our main exit. (We do have another exit, but with all the ice and branches down, it would have been an ordeal to use that exit.) For those of you who don't know us well, my husband was hit by a car while out running almost 20 years ago and is a quadriplegic. His wheelchair is much like a little tractor, but that too runs on battery powered electricity....And tho he is fairly comfortable in our little home, he is adversely affected by extreme temperatures. So keeping the house warm, and him warm enough was going to be a challenge. I found a battery in my cabinet that would fit the old radio we keep for this reason and were able to listen to NPR and get the news...But after the first day with no heat and lights, this got really old fast. On Friday I was able to run to the market to get cold cuts and bread, cookies and a few things that we could eat without cooking them. I took all the real good stuff out of the freezer and put it into a cooler and put it out on the deck to freeze...and then we waited... The trip to the market was scary. So much devastation all around me. It really pains me to see all of those lovely trees down in the road. It was frightening to come across the live wires down and familiar roads closed down...Because the power outage was so severe, i had to drive further out and found that only 1 grocery store was (thankfully) still open. The cashier was clearly agitated and when i started talking to her (i talk to everyone) she told me she was worried about her Mom as she was living in the middle of nowhere and was on oxygen and had only 1 tank in reserve. That put it all in perspective for me. I told her i would pray for her Mom and we both got a little weepy. Things like this make you realize what is really important, you know? Anyway, strangely enough, the thing i was worried about while out driving and seeing all the trees down was my big pine trees. I have several of them standing guard around my house. They are huge. And i love these old trees...The tree in the front of the house was so overburdened by the ice that it's boughs were bent all the way to the ground. I was worried i would loose some major branches. But after a night of warmer temps last night, the branches are back up where they belong. I didn't loose one branch on any of my trees. When i could get away from the hardship this storm imposed on everyone, i did see the beauty it brought to us too. It was a s if we lived in a different universe. Ice coated everything, and when the sun shone, it was just beautiful. So i am sitting here, catching up on my blogging and email and so grateful for the little things like light, and warmth, and security. It was a good lesson for me to remember to be grateful for all of my Blessings....