Mar 2, 2007

Out of the Frying Pan

So Wednesday's concern about gas shortages looked a bit lame today. We had a serious "winter storm" on Thursday that produced a short-lived blizzard that was followed by freezing rain. I managed to get out to two "go-sees" (in the same building, but five hours apart!) before things got too ugly, but the streets were treacherous. More freezing rain overnight made things even worse.

At about 2:00 AM on Thursday morning we lost power, which always awakens me as my Mac's UPS begins to beep. I have a gas stove and water heater, so hot water and cooking were still possible but my gas furnace won't operate without its electric fan. The house began to slowly cool down. Breakfast was scrambled eggs (without toast!) and hot tea and while my son sloshed to school, which had power, I set to work finding the street's sewer grates and digging them out so the road and sidewalks would be able to drain. In many spots there was 5 cm of slushy water swirling around.

With no phone, TV, or internet I was forced to read for hours. After a while I returned to bed to get some sleep as I'm still pretty wobbly from the flu and it was starting to get chilly. By late afternoon we were still without power and had heard that power might not be restored "to all areas" until Saturday or even Sunday. The temperature was down to 12C (54F) in the house and I had gathered candles for the coming night. I suggested to Chris that he might prefer staying at his mother's since she was lucky to still have power, but he chose to hunker down beside me in solidarity. And also for the faint chance of being able to play World of Warcraft...

Just before dusk the power returned. Whew! I got to warm up properly and Chris got an hour of WoW time.

Listening to: Burning Down The House by Talking Heads from Stop Making Sense.

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