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| MAKING THE BEST OF OUR 42 HOUR POWER OUTAGE |
This is a rather long blog because it covers both Saturday and Sunday.
Friday, Dec 23rd. With a pop, fizzle, and a clunk, our power went out Friday night at 7:20 p.m. And that was that, we were in total darkness with howling winds and blowing snow outside our windows. Minutes later, with a couple flashlights we lit some candles and two oil lamps. Kelly’s cell phone still worked so she called the Power Company for an update. They said power would be restored by 10 p.m. but we highly doubted that. The next update said 1 p.m. on Saturday and then 5 p.m. Saturday. The writing was on the wall, we were in for a long night and maybe even a couple days. We settled in for the long haul. Luckily, we have a gas stove in the sunroom so we had a source of heat. Without power, the fan wouldn’t work but that was okay, it was good enough. And of course, we had the RV outside for backup. Kelly slept in her bed for the night and I stretched out in my sunroom recliner beside the gas stove. Kelly’s sleep was so-so and I slept fine. Pheebs slept on her doggy bed in front of the gas stove beside my chair.
Saturday, Dec. 24th. Awake at 6 a.m. I figured I might as well get up and fire up my snow shovel. It had stopped snowing but the high winds were blowing our pine trees around like a bunch of flapping noodles. Re-lit our lanterns, dressed up good and warm, then headed outside. I first shoveled a path to the motorhome which I then started up and with its running lights lighting up the driveway and front yard I commenced shoveling a path to our birdfeeders and was able to top up the feeders before the feathered gang flew in for breakfast. Shoveled a path to our road and widened the path to the motorhome. Kelly was up about an hour later so I started Scooter’s generator while she readied our main coffee percolator. I carried the perk out to the rig and plugged it in. Ten minutes later we had had hot morning coffees.
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| STAYING WARM CLOSE TO OUR MAIN HEAT SOURCE |
10 a.m. We have a battery-operated/hand crank emergency radio so we can listen to local news station weather reports and conditions. Snowplows had been pulled off the roads Thursday night so all area roads were plugged with snow and nothing was moving. No snowplows, power company trucks, ambulances, or firetrucks moving. Trains were stopped and airplanes grounded. We stuck close to our sunroom’s gas stove and watched all the birds in our front yard.
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| WITH KELLY JUST BACK FROM THE HOSPITAL A FEW DAYS AGO SHE HAD TROUBLE GETTING WARM SO WE FIRED UP OUR ‘BUDDY HEATER’ FOR HER AS WELL |
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| BLOWING SNOW SOMETIMES PLUGS UP THE BIRD FEEDERS SO THIS IS WHERE AND HOW I DRY THEM OUT |
12:15 p.m.Shortly after noon I headed out to the rig with my coffee pot and brewed up a cup of decaf, heated up a small container of soup for Kelly in the microwave, and plugged my Kindle charger in. Because we have a smaller propane tank on this rig I was hesitant to fire up the rig’s furnace because we do not know how long this power outage is going to last. It could easily be another day or two because with today’s high winds blowing all the loose snow around, Ontario Hydro may still not be able to get their trucks and crews on the road to repair all the damaged power lines.
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| WE SURE ARE GLAD WE DIDN’T SELL OUR MOTORHOME LAST FALL |
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| WARM INSIDE AND ICICLES OUTSIDE |
2 p.m. Being curious to know what was happening outside our Park I cranked up the Jeep and headed out the driveway and was pleased to see that Bayfield River Road running past our Park had been plowed. Our Park roads had not been plowed. Decided to head for Bayfield and see how it went. No problems as I found all roads were open. I also noticed the power was on in Bayfield. The Bayfield Garage was open as well as the Foodland Supermarket. Tim Hortons and the gas bar were closed. A few shops in Bayfield were open but most were closed.
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| A LOT OF SMALL BRANCHES AND PINE NEEDLES DOWN ON OUR STREET |
6 p.m. I took a drive around our Park and saw three large pine trees down. One completely blocked one of the Park’s roads and another down across a driveway missing a parked car by mere inches. Some places were lit because the owners had generators. Using the rig’s generator we charged up Kelly’s phone and my Kindle. We spent Christmas Eve in our sunroom. The kitchen and living room temperature was 45F but in the sunroom we had it up to nearly 70F. The last thing I said to Kelly before she headed to bed was, “Merry Christmas Ma’. She answered me with two words, “Ahhhh Humbug’:))
The rest of the day was spent cleaning up and getting ourselves reorganized back to our normally comfortable routines. Music again, the Internet again, TV again, heat again, lights, water, and hot water again, landline phone again etc. and etc. I have more I could say but I’m just too darned tired to even think about saying more. Goodnight……..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz:))
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| OUR FRONT YARD CHRISTMAS LIGHTS |
GROANER’S CORNER:((
My friend Jim told me that when he asked his wife where she wanted to go on vacation, she said that being married to him was a vacation. When I commented that was a nice thing to say to him, Jim replied, “Well, actually, what she said was I was the ‘last resort.”———————————-
People who work out too much are like monsters. Aka the Abdominal Show-man.
