You Can Survive without Electricity. But Not for Long

I have to start by saying that I've been fortunate not to have ever been in a situation where we have lost power for more than a couple of hours.  Even my daughters will tell you that when it infrequently happened, it was a treat--reading stories by candlelight.

So this weekend's storm and subsequent power outage was a shock and not a small inconvenience.  The forecast was for up to 6" of snow.  We got 15!!  One of our 40 year old silver maples still had leaves on it so it shed branches this year--big ones--lots of them.  Tho one landed on Martha's fence, none of them did any permanent damage.

Our communication with the outside world was our friends who stopped by with news of towns in the area being 100% without power and the prediction that it would take 5 days to get everyone back up.  So we would have to live without electricity for awhile.  And don't I have a cell phone for just this kind of situation?
Well, that wasn't working either.

Our gas fireplace needs power for the blower to work but without a blower it still gives off radiant heat. Sunday and Monday were bright and sunny so the sunroom got pretty cozy for most of the day.
But the fridge was starting to get warm so we packed up all the perishables into coolers and buried them in the snow on the back deck.  There was no shortage of snow.

I went out on Sunday to shovel off the trees (doesn't that sound weird?).  Our kousa was laying FLAT.  I thought it was a goner.  By midday, though, it looked like Spring had returned.  But I came in completely soaked and...no power for the blow dryer.  In the back of a cabinet I found some curlers from about 25 years ago and had to resort to them.  Remember curlers?

Last night we drove to my daughter's house for supper (she has a generator and her stove was working) where we dined by candlelight (appropriate as she works at Yankee Candle).  The mile between our homes looked like a war zone.  Trees and power lines down and still in the middle of the road.  That was a little scary.

This afternoon as I was wondering how long hubby and I could go without a hot shower, the power finally came on.  Was it only 2 days?  It seemed like a week.

For more pictures of road conditions see my friend, Poetesswug's blog--http://poetesswug-thewugsbackyardblogspot.blogspot.com/2011/10/monday-message-in-bottleto-snow-storms.html