I have this strange urge to run around the house turning on every light and every single thing that is electric. I stood under the shower with hot water pouring out of the shower head for as long as I possibly could this morning. It felt so good to be truly clean again since it was Sunday at 5:00 a.m. when I had last felt that way. It was so nice to get up to a warm house with heat pouring out of the vents!

It really makes you appreciate the things we all take for granted. I’ve read a lot of books and seen many movies where people are struggling to live in a post apocalyptic world, and believe me, it felt that way to us this week. It makes you wonder what it would be like if something cataclismic did happen to our world and there was no longer any power, no gasoline to run our cars, no food being delivered to the grocery stores.

Yesterday when Rick got home from work he was very excited to see a utility crew working on our problem. We walked down to take a look. Lots of activity!

Several neighbors had gathered to watch. One neighbor who lives near where the trees fell across the road said that they saw the flash as power was lost. He also said he heard at the sound of tires spinning and took the flashlight out to see. The trees had crushed a car as they came down! The person in the car walked away unscathed. I think it must have been their lucky day!

We were optimistic even after we asked one of the crew if this meant our power would be back on shortly. He said non-committally “depends on where you live.” Both Rick and I pointed back up our road and he just shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

One of our neighbors at the end of the road had just bought a brand new generator and it was chugging away. The opened box was still in his driveway. Rick had brought home a generator too on loan from someone at work. We knew this would guarantee that our power would come back on. It just had to!

When we got back to the house we checked the web site for Rockland Electric once again. It said we could expect to be back on the grid by 6:00 p.m. But 6:00 p.m. came and went with no change. We cooked by lamp light for what we hoped was the last time, then settled in by the wood stove for some good conversation.

You know how the story ends, so I’ll stop here!

What a year this has been for weather!

At 9:05 p.m. I sat by the wood stove. I had just let the dogs out. I heard water trickling and didn’t think too much of it because Rick had just taken a bowl of hot water upstairs to wash with. I went to let the dogs in and noticed that the light in the garage was on.

Whoa… light? That trickle of water? The kitchen faucet that I guess must have been left on.

Hurrah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let there be light.

And electricity.

And heat.

And cable. (maybe?)

And wireless internet.

And love.

Giving thanks to the power Gods tonight.

GOOD NIGHT!


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I think this might be the root of our problem:















Our street is the only one accessible because of this “minor” problem! It’s been like this for days now. The new estimate for us having power has now been moved to Thursday sometime. Until I see them working on this I won’t get my hopes up too much. This scene is played out all over the county.

Yesterday I heated water on the wood stove and washed my hair and took a sponge bath. Rick went to work and showered there (lucky man!) I suppose I could go down and take one too but it’s a long way and the traffic is not good because so many roads are closed. If I had a job I would probably take advantage of the public showers but no one sees me during the day except the cats and dogs anyway.

It’s hard to imagine in my little post apocalyptic bubble, but just a few miles down the road life is going on like normal. People have power, the ShopRite is open and restocking all their frozen goods. I went there yesterday just to get out of the house and then drove around to charge my iPad! I will probably do the same today.

Here are a few scenes from around the house.

Any ideas I may have once had about losing power being romantic and exciting went out the window on the second day.


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