Monday, January 6, 2014
Well, the frigid cold is here. All day. Brrrrrrr. Just as the weatherman said. They can mark this in their 30% correct column! Wow.
I got up around 8:30 this morning. Another one of those early wake-ups I can't understand. I didn't go to bed until late, then read a bit, so my light didn't go out until 1 or so. Why do I wake so early, then? I just don't know. I did sleep well, but still. I LIKE sleeping well, also. I didn't do that for many, many years and I can certainly learn to live with that!
After reading a bit, I got up, played Happy Homemaker for a while (dishes and laundry, you know) and then got on the pute. I sure wasn't planning on going out! I'm not totally stupid...just a little, every now and then.
Around 1 - 1:30, I ventured out to find me some lunch, and came up with my "poor man's shit on a shingle" - potato soup with tuna in it. Sounded nice and warming to me. While it was cooking, I also turned on my Wii, put on the FirePlace and lit my Fireside candle with the wood wick, so it looks, hears, and smells like a fire is burning in here in the living room (oh, how we wish we really had a fireplace and this works without the mess!) and I warmed up both inside and out as I ate my lunch.
After I ate my lunch, I went out into the kitchen and finished taking down my Christmas tree and putting everything away. Yep, sad as it is, Christmas is now over. January 6th, Epiphany, is it. : ~ (
Ron got home from work around 5, and he was pretty darn cold. He just sat in his recliner for a little while, just enjoying being inside, then finally went and took his shower and snuggled under a couple of throws and he watched his news then. There went the nice warm fire....sigh. I also blew out the candle - why waste it, right? About a half hour later, the lights flickered but stayed on. Uh-oh. Not good. Freaky, even.
Around 6, we decided to have our supper. I had the rest of the venison stew, and Ron had the rest of his cabbage dish. I had put the stew on the back burner on low around 3, and it had been heating all afternoon and smelled great! Fireplace and stew...yum! Ron zapped his cabbage crap in the microwave. We settled in for the winter's night. Ron was warming up nicely, and since I hadn't really gone outside, I was, and had been, warm all day.
At 10 til 7, it happened. The power went out. Great. Sub-zero temperatures, and the power really truly goes out. Whee! Ron was playing the DS, so we did have that wee bit of light, and I find the small battery-powered lantern that he (luckily) just got for Christmas and is still on the kitchen table, only because I didn't know where to put it - how funny is that? - so I re-light the Fireside candle here on my desk. Then I light the Buttered Popcorn (actually "Movie Night") candle we just got for Christmas, which was still on the table also, and sit it on our movie cabinet at the beginning of the hallway. I go in the bathroom, and get a candle out in there (I thought it was a pine one, but it ended up being a fall scent), too, so we have a little bit of light everywhere, and pretty soon, the house smells pretty darn good!
We each just sit in our recliners, snuggled under throws/blankets for a little while, then we decided that it would be better if we go ahead and go in to bed. There, we can get under all of our QUILTS, which are much heavier than the throws and blankets, and together, we have each other's body heat to help keep us warm, too. I can set the alarm on my cell phone so Ron can get up for work, so that's covered, also, and we're set. If we DO get too darn cold, we can get bundled up, pack a few things, and go on down to Josh's (in Ripley) for the night if we really, really need to. We didn't want to, we'd rather stay in our own home, but we could if needed.
So, we get the bed ready - extra quilts dug out of the closet and laid out - and get all huddled in, and POOF the lights come back on. Yep. That's all it took. Sigh. We should have done this an hour ago!!
The power was out for almost 2 hours - just 5 minutes or so shy of 2 hours. I suppose, considering everything, that this was a minor miracle. I am certainly very grateful to Duke Energy that it WAS only 2 hours. I feel sorry for those men who have to be out there, in these conditions, fixing who-knows-what at any hour of the day or night. Just as people expect to have their garbage gone on days like this, people want their heat and lights, too! They may grumble about having to take their cans to the end of their driveways in the cold and snow, but they don't think about the men (and women) whose job it is to come and get them every single day, every week, no matter what. Just as we don't always think about the men (and women) whose job it is to keep our power on - until it's not on. But they are out there working, day in and day out in this crap, and I'm very grateful for that.
Okay, off the soapbox.
The temperature in the living room had dropped over 20 degrees. I have a thermometer on the wall, and we try to keep it right at 70. I'm not sure how low it got to, but when I thought to look at it about 15 minutes later, it was at just 55 degrees. I'm glad Ron just stayed in bed, since he did have to get up and go to work in the morning. He had been cold all day - he didn't need to be cold at home, too. He usually doesn't go to bed until around 10, but since this day was already weird, why not? I was back on the pute, and watching TV, when the power went out again a little after 10. Well, crap.
I surrendered. I just went to bed.
Yes, I am writing this "tomorrow" but what was I to do?
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