Guess what happened to me last night?
Was checking emails before dinner & went to close my browser and as soon as I did, the tv turned off. I'm like, wtf? Tried the remote with no luck, then realized that the dvd player had no power either.
Turns out, we lost power. No storms, no bad weather, just cold (was 9°F when I checked). I waited a few minutes, but it didn't come back on, so I figured, since I couldn't cook, I'd go out. Once I got to the pub & ordered food, I logged into the wi-fi & checked on the outage. It was predicted to be repaired within about 1.5 hrs (would've been about 7:30p), so i figured I'd just take my time, eat slow, then head home. I did, and got home when I planned - power was still out. I decided to stay in my nice warm truck & drive around a bit, so I headed downtown. I wasn't expecting what I saw.
Power was out there too. And it wasn't just a few of blocks either, it was out for a couple miles. At that point I figured I might as well go home & see if I could do anything.until it got restored. 1st, I decided to go over & check on my neighbor. She's retired & lives alone, so I wanted to make sure she was doing alright & would be warm enough. I took my number over as well so she could call if she needed anything. She was fine & we talked for a few minutes. She told me she'd received a text saying it would be restored by 9:30p, and I told her about what I'd found re: 7:30p & we kind of laughed about it.
I came back home & got two of my grandparents' oil lamps out (I'm glad I'd decided to buy fuel & new wicks several months back). One of the lamps is a tall Wolf0rd lamp, but the other is a genuine old-fashioned Queen Mary style (much nicer than that one), and there was a certain kind of romance to walking through a dark house carrying an oil lamp by the finger handle. It was a similar feeling I had when my furnace died at the old house & I had to heat with just firewood for a few years - a kind of old-timey, 'settler' kind of vibe; I don't know how else to explain it!
Anyway, I also found a flashlight & decided to just sit & read for a bit, (It doesn't matter how high you turn the flame, you just can't read small print by an oil lamp!), figuring that, by the time I was done, the power should be back on. I finished the book around 9:00p, but still had no power. Ok, I thought, I'll go to bed but set my alarm for 10p, so I can at least try to get lunch ready for the next day. 10p came, still no power; set alarm for 11p. 11p came, still no power!
It's now down to 55°F in my house (I went to check, to see how quickly it was cooling down), and I know I need to be up in 6 hrs, so I just said 'fuck it' & went to bed with my sweats on. It was a rough night, not so much due to the cold (I was reasonably ok with that), but the dinner I'd had at the pub was disagreeing with me. Had an upset stomach for a few hrs. Obviously I got to sleep at some point, then my alarm went off just before 5a.
Power still wasn't on & I figured if I went to work, the pipes might be frozen by the time I got back, so I closed the main, then opened all the taps to empty the pipes. Would've worked, except I couldn't shut the valve on the water heater & it kicked on, so I had to shut the gas valve off. A few minutes later, I realized that I could've just opened the hot water taps in the house & they would've kept the cold pipes from freezing, so I proceeded to try to figure out the pilot light on this 30 yr old water heater with just a flashlight. I did manage to get it re-lit, then opened the main again & set about opening the hot water taps to just a trickle, to maintain the flow. Finally I could get my meals ready for work.
Just as I was finishing assembling the ingredients for a cold breakfast & packing lunch (heading out the door, in fact), the power finally came back on! Back in the house, go shut all the taps, check to make sure the furnace was still working, etc., then, why not actually make my coffee for the day so I can take it like I normally do? I was about an hour late to work, but I was glad I took the extra time - I really do enjoy my coffee!
Maybe it's a good thing I've been practicing this 'W1m H0f' cold therapy, yes? Probably helped me get through the night.
5:25 p.m. - 2019-01-14
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