Around 4:30 last night we decided it might be a good idea to fix a bit of supper and feed the critters just in case the power went out.
We'd just opened a can of soup when that unmistakable silence hit. No soup, only sandwiches. Ice cream, too, while the house was still warm enough to tolerate ice cream. (It was only going to get soft anyway!)
Around 6 my pager went off. The words that were going through my head were not nice.
And, there was no way it was possible to even think about getting into town.
I tried the cordless phone. Yup. Cordless phones don't work when the electricity is off. I used to have a land line, but got rid of it when I got the cordless model.
Cell phone was next. Guess what? Everyone who has wireless house phones were on their cell phones. And, enough towers were out of commission around here to put most all phones on roaming and those networks were busy. For hours.
I finally got ahold of the hospital operator and he told me that about 10K nurses were calling in because they couldn't get to work.
"Guess what?" I said, "Now it's 10K nurses and one phlebotomist." He got a laugh out of that.
So, periodically throughout the night WV kept trying to page me, and I kept trying to call her back.
"Piss on it," Robert said. "It's a hospital. There are people there who can draw blood in an emergency. They can live without a phlebotomist." True enough.
We both were in bed by 7:30 or so. The house was cold, the blankets were appealing. We had both dogs in between us - definitely a comfortable two dog night. Except, Yama tends to be really nervous about being on the couch or bed, so she kept stiffening her hind legs every so often. Thankfully, her feet were toward Robert:)
Around 5 a.m. my pager went off again. WV wanted me to come to work. "Sorry, I can't get there. There's branches all over the place, I have no heat in my house, and until daylight I can't assess what's going on outside."
She chewed on me for a bit because she'd tried repeatedly to call me last night. And, I told her I repeatedly tried to call her back both at home and on her cell and couldn't get through. She can be such a bitch. Why did she think that my world was any different than hers at that point? Besides, I'd already made it perfectly clear that I was taking call as a favor, and that if the weather/roads were bad I would not be coming to work even if they did call. Guess she found out I wasn't kidding, huh?
Let her write me up. Wouldn't be a good plan on her part.
At any rate, I've got to go in tonight. I'll have to be there just long enough to get the patients done, and then I can leave. It's already snowing here. Accumulations are supposed to be less than an inch if Weather Channel knows anything.
Our power came on briefly around 9 this morning, then browned out, more than likely because no one could remember what all they'd left on when the power died. It came back and stayed on about a half hour later.
I've spent a good portion of my day rediscovering muscles, and clearing branches and sticks from my yard and the neighbor's yards, and scooping the ice and slush out of the driveway. We don't have a snowblower, so my arms feel like rubber.
If I ever have a snowblower, I intend to be a good neighbor and clean my neighbors walks and drives and such. It irritates the heck out of me that people don't watch out for each other. I scooped part of my neighbor's drive, too. They were out of town, and it was thawing enough that it just made sense to get the stuff off the walks and drives.
Damage report: Our trees lost plenty of sticks, and some branches. Our neighbor's tree did not fall into our driveway. The neighbor across the street lost a beautiful, perfectly shaped 60 foot tall evergreen tree. It's really sad to see such a bare spot in the yard.
If you will look at yesterday's pictures, you can see part of the evergreen tree "above" the hood of my Jeep. And, now that spot is bare.
This is what's left of that beautiful evergreen:(
This is the pile of branches that came out of the tree in the neighbor behind us.
At any rate, we're safe, no major damage, and the house is once again warm. It's supposed to snow off and on for the next five days or so, but no ice storms like this one are expected. My oldest daughter is one of those who may have to wait for almost a week before her power is restored. But, they do have a wood burning furnace as well as a gas furnace, so their house is fairly warm, plus they have a fireplace and a gas grill to cook with. Good thing we all know something about camping!
Talk to y'all soon.
4 comments:
Wow Kate I'm glad you're all okay, and that your power has been restored. I hope you don't get too much snow hon!
Kate,
Sorry you had to endure this ordeal. And so sad to see the evergreen go.
Wonderful that you helped your neighbors, though. I try to have that attitude, too.
I hope it comes back to you, as it should.
Glad to hear you're back to normal at home Kate and that things didn't get too bad :)
Kudos to you for helping your neighbors out! Growing up there were a couple of our neighbors that were widows. We always helped them with their yards and with leaf and snow removal. We didn't really think much about it, it was just the right thing to do.
It came back to us this last year while my Dad was going through cancer surgeries. The widows have both passed over, but their kids and grandkids made sure my Dad's yard and driveway were taken care of all last year while he recouperated. :)
Sounds as though we're slated to get another ice storm later this week, although it's not supposed to pack as much of a wallop as the last one.
I just hope the power stays on. I've grown rather accustomed to electricity. But, I'll lay in a better stock of necessities for the potential next round - like batteries for the radio. Duh. One of the worst parts was having absolutely no clue what was going on everywhere else.
Thank you for the compliments on helping out the neighbors. It just seems like the right thing to do. My thought is that if we all gave more of a damn about our neighbors, the world wouldn't be in such lousy shape.
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