Bella gives scale to the trees.

The sharp chirp of the smoke alarm at 4:30 a.m. this morning woke us all up. Bleary eyed and half awake we realized what that sound meant. The dogs piled onto to the bed since they hate that high pitched chirp the alarms make whenever the power is disturbed. I laid there and listened to the sounds of the house coming alive again. You don’t realize how silent it was until it’s not anymore.

Power. Lovely electricity. Lovely heat pouring forth from the vents. Lovely water spurting and sputtering as the tap is turned on and the air is forced out.

We still don’t have cable, so that means no TV, no internet and no house phone. But at least we have power again and still so many people around us do not.

I have to admit just a twinge of regret that it’s back on. We were just getting into the new rhythm of our days and now we have to switch back. We walked around this morning not knowing quite what to do next. I found myself sitting in the dark instead of turning on lights.




eBay chilling out on her cozy cat tree.

I sat in McDonald’s yesterday as they are one of the only places in town that was open and had wi-fi. Every table was filled with people busily typing away on their laptops, noshing away on hamburgers and fries. I was hoping that the wi-fi would be enough to download my blogging program, but alas it wasn’t so I will have to send this to Rick so he can post it for me.

Of course the power is back because Rick sat in line for gas on his way home from work. He didn’t really know it was a line for gas until the line finally (one hour + later) snaked its way up to the gas station. They allowed him $40 this time for gas. You can read his account of his experiences yesterday here. It’s worth reading! Oh well. Now we have plenty of gas for the mower or the next power outage.

The Shop Rite got power back yesterday but they were not open. We went today to find them open but the produce section was pretty much bare of lettuces and the like, but had peppers, potatoes and fruit. Likewise the meat counter and the fish counter: all bare.

The A & P however, which is on the opposite side of town only ever lost power for about ten minutes or so so they were fully stocked with dairy, produce, meat and pretty much everything except for eggs.

There was a gas line at the station by the A & P that was very long but at least the people had pulled off the road far enough for those not wishing to purchase gas could get by. I had noticed a sign along the road before we got to all those waiting cars that said “Gas cans only line in Sears parking lot.” The line wound in and out of several different parking lots and around building before reaching the gas station. In the parking lot of the Sears Hardware (which is in the same strip mall as the A & P) there stood a line of people with their red gas cans. Waiting. Now I know what the sign meant. All the other gas stations in town are now out of gas except for this one.

But ... we don’t need gas anymore!

We feel very thankful that we have our power back. Next exciting thing will be the cable services!


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It’s starting to feel normal now. The lack of electricity, water and heat. The generator is great but can only run it about 3 or 4 hours in the morning and the same at night. Gas is becoming a concern for us. We thought we had a good amount, but with the gas stations either not open or running out of gas it’s a problem.


Rick went in to work today dodging all the road closures. He reported that on the way the places that had power was spotty at best. He found a Stop and Shop that was open but not much inside. They were busy clearing out the freezer sections. He stopped at Home Depot and stood in line for gas can rationing. He snagged two more cans, then waited in line for 30 minutes to get $20 worth of gas which is all they would let him have. We’ll have to wait in line for gas every day I guess.


If feels very post-apocolyptic. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is not to be able to watch the news. We stream NPR news over Rick’s iPad and listen, but there are no pictures of the devastation that everyone else is seeing except for all the people who are right in the middle of it. Very frustrating.


This morning I washed my hair which has not been washed since my luxurious shower on Monday morning. We take a hot sponge bath every night just before we go to bed so the rest of me was clean except for my hair. I took hot water heated on the wood stove and poured in in the basin we’ve been using to wash dishes in. Then I poured in some cold to cool it off enough that I wouldn’t scald my head. I then poured it into a large metal bowl and dunked my head in as far as I could. To get my hair completely wet I poured mugs of the warm water over my head, catching the water in the basin. When my hair was wet enough I shampooed it. Then I poured the basin-captured-water over my head in mugfuls until my hair was pretty much rinsed. To end the process I poured a mug of pure cold water over it. While the generator was still on I plugged in my hair dryer and dried it. I could have just scrunched it and let it dry on its own but it lasts longer when I dry it. I put on some make-up for the first time in 4 days and I feel almost human!


I am going out to see if Shop Rite is open and what they may or may not have.



Sent from my iPad
Powerless in NJ and camping in the house

I am sitting in front of the wood stove, blogging.

Let’s see, where did I leave off? We had spaghetti for dinner last night and treated ourselves to a few episodes of House Hunters International which were stored in the TiVo. It’s nice having the generator! We run it about 4 hours in the morning and then about 4-5 hours in late afternoon/evening. Otherwise it’s pretty darned quiet (and dark) around our house.

Here is a pic of our lifeline to the generator which is just outside of our basement.








Here is our iPad charging station.




And our cooking station!




It’s hard for anyone to imagine what being without power and water is like if you’ve never been through it. If not for last year’s five day power outage (at the very exact same time of the year, (see “On This Day” over in the blog’s margin if you don’t believe me) we would not have been as prepared as we are this time. One thing I wish I had thought of is handi-wipes. As conserving as we are of water it would help to be able to get our hands cleaner without soap or water.

Since we are not on any public utilities and are on a well we don’t have running water. Without water you can’t flush your toilet. You can’t wash your dishes, or your hands, or take a shower. We do have plenty of water reserves for flushing though since we filled up both bathtubs. And I heat water for washing in the kettle on top of the wood stove.

Pretty much you can’t do anything without power except light a fire in the fireplace.

Thank goodness Rick and I started out life together by doing a lot of camping so we kind of get it. But camping in your own house where you expect to have all the luxuries of our current century is no fun.

After a breakfast of a strip of bacon, a fried egg and a piece of whole wheat toast we went outside to pick up three limbs and branches that were littering our front yard. Lots of bending. Even though it was only 44 degrees F outside we were both working up a sweat.

After we cooled off from that activity we decided to take the dogs and drive into town to see if anything was open and how things had fared outside of our little community. What we saw did not raise our hopes any of getting our power back anytime soon. It looked like the only places open were McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts and they must have had generator power because Shop Rite and the whole strip mall associated with them was dark. You can see in this pic taken by Rick that the cart returns where all blown down.




We saw lots of downed trees, some affecting power lines. The West Milford side of town seemed to have gotten the brunt of the storm, while over on the Hewitt side the A & P was open and everything around it was open.
One gas station in town was open and selling gas but the line was longer than we could see the end of. They had two policemen routing traffic just for the gas station.

We passed one house that was consumed by a huge evergreen that had fallen and just missed crushing the entire house.




We tried to get further down the mountain but the road was closed, and several other roads in the are as well. Quite a mess.

We were supposed to go down our friends’ Andy & Linda’s house on the shore this coming weekend. I feel so badly for them. We heard this morning that although their house is still standing the damage is probably very bad. They were right in the area where Sandy came on shore and from what I understand their backyard basically backs up to the dunes.

October is definitely not New Jersey’s finest month if the past two October storms are anything to go by.

Just look how stressed the dogs are.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Powerless in NJ and camping in the house

This is a photo of our driveway on the other side. We have a circular drive and thankfully we don’t use this part very much.
I am blogging from Rick’s iPad since I guess I was a bad girl and have not been syncing my iPad with my computer so that my version of BlogPress is not working. Sigh.
We survived the night. The wind was ferocious last night. We started off by sleeping downstairs but woke up about an hour after going to bed and hearing that the wind had died down, we went back upstairs to our own bed for the remainder of the night.
If I had seen the sight I saw this morning of our neighbors’ (Kim and Mark) trees down across the road I might have stayed downstairs!




So far we got the generator running and right now the fridge is plugged in. It’s still raining outside and pretty gray, so not a lot of lighti is coming in to the house. I am typing by lantern light at the moment in the kitchen.
We have a fire going in the wood stove and I just put a tea kettle full of water on it to heat up for either washing a few dishes or a little sponge bath.
We walked down our street and saw lots of trees down.




But the worst thing we saw was the major road and all the trees and power lines down on it. This was the same exact spot where our power problem was last year in the October snowstorm!!

Last time it looked like this it took us five days to get our power back. Not looking good!!
In the meantime we are safe and warm. We plan on reading around the wood stove and maybe we’ll put a puzzle together.
Rick’s company is closed again today and we know that they don’t have power, so until power is restored down in Wayne he won’t be going to work.
We got coffee perked on our butane burner and ate biscuits that Rick baked yesterday. Not sure what lunch will be. Grilled cheese sandwiches? Soup?
Apologies in advance for any typos!


UPDATE @ 2:30 p.m.
We walked over to neighbor Aileen’s house (with the chickens) and chatted with them. All their animals are good but they lost a huge oak tree in the front yard that thankfully fell away from the house instead of on it. They were out with chains saws sawing it up, which is quite the task.

Throughout our little neighborhood the sound of generators and chains saws mingle with the smell of wood smoke from everyone’s fireplace and wood stoves. It kind of feel like we’re at a campground. Only camping in your own home it not ideal. Better than a tent, granted but at least in a tent you don’t walk around turning on lights that just won’t turn on.

We’d had rain on and off all day and the temperatures are now in the 40’s. We are basically living in our kitchen/sunroom area as that is the warmest (and brightest!) spot in the house.

We’re about to turn on the generator again to charge up the old iPads and give the fridge a cool down. At least that is one thing that is different than last year’s October power outage.

More later; stay tuned!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I’ve decided to keep a diary of events for myself and for anyone interested in reading the minutiae of my life. I’ll update as the day goes on.




Outside my front door this morning; taken standing on front step.


Monday Morning
Slept until just after seven o’clock. Dark. Breezy, but overnight was not too windy. Power still on.



9:30 a.m.:

Wind picking up and whooshing around the house like it does on any other very windy day. Luxuriated in a really long hot shower knowing it might be the last one I’ll take for several days. Used the dryer on my hair because it fares better the next day if I do in case I don’t get to wash it tomorrow. No makeup was applied. I am clothed in sweat pants, a long-sleeved gray t-shirt and my cozy men’s flannel shirt and house slippers.


Rick baked biscuits so the house smells really good now.


I laid a fire in the wood stove to light in a little while. Outside temp is around 51 degrees F.



Update @ 12:20 p.m.
Just had turkey sandwiches for lunch from our turkey yesterday. Here it was yesterday:





Raining now pretty hard. Wind has been fluctuating back and forth all morning long.


No fire in the wood stove yet, but I am seriously thinking about lighting it. After, all, we do have plenty of wood but not all of it split into smaller pieces for starting fires. Maybe we’ll go down and split a few more bigger logs.


Tonight for dinner we are planning on fondue. We planned fondue because even though I start the melting process of the cheese on a stove, it all ends up in the sterno-fueled fondue pot. Rick made bread yesterday for it and the crumb is going to be PERFECT for fondue. Yum. Can’t wait.





I feel like I am twiddling my thumbs waiting for something to happen. Under house arrest! The dogs can’t figure out why we are both just sitting around.


(In case I forget to mention it, Rick’s company decided yesterday that they would be closed today and I am assuming tomorrow too since Sandy is taking her time getting here.)




Update @ 3:54 p.m.
About to fix us an Autumn Evening! Not much happening for us. Some rain (almost half an inch) and very windy and picking up.


Sandy is supposed to reach land-ho! around six this evening. She got a burst of energy and is now moving fast. They are closing the Tappen Zee bridge at 4:00 p.m. New York City has turned into a ghost town with all city transportation has been shut down.


We’ve been watching the movie SeaBiscuit. Great movie, and you should catch it sometime if you haven’t seen it. Very uplifting!




Update @ 5:26 p.m.
The wind is really ripping. Lots of big gusts. The lights have flickered a few times. Rick (on my request) has blown up the air mattress so we can possibly sleep downstairs. My concern is two large trees close to the house. I feel safer on the ground floor just in case they decide to come down.




Update @ 7:08 p.m.

Lights keep flickering more and more. Just went out for a second but came back on. I think we are on the fringe. Soon power will be out for sure.


Update (and probably the last) at 8:21 p.m.
Sandy has arrived and she is not happy. I have never heard wind at our house like I am hearing tonight. The dogs are freaked out and especially Bella. She sits by our side and tilts her head this way and that when a big gust goes by. It sounds likes a train passing by our house. We’ve lost power about five times that have taken the internet offline, and TV as well, but so far it has popped back up, hence this post.


We are definitely sleeping downstairs tonight. The roar of the wind on the second floor in our bedroom is enough to keep an elephant awake.


We’ve seen the lights flicker about 20 times and total off times about five. We figure they are running out of switching options at this point.


I have never heard the winds this strong here. Very scary.


Signing off for tonight. Safe and sound.

Okay, power out now T 8:50 p.m.