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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