Category: Miscellaneous

Both pictures taken at dusk on December 31, 2008.

Power finally came back on at about 6:30pm, which means we were out for about 4 hours less than three days in total. It was an all-together not particularly enjoyable adventure, but an adventure to say the least.

At it’s lowest the upstairs got to about 35 F, which only a few degrees (in F or C) above freezing. We were running water through all taps nonstop to prevent them from freezing, and doing things like flushing the toilets periodically for the same purpose. We lost all perishable food in the refrigerator and almost everything in the freezer. Thankfully we were able to stash some ‘expensive’ meat in a friends freezer (thanks SFL!) and save it.

Last night was particularly wretched, since we set our alarm for every hour so we could keep the fire burning and check the taps. Neither of us got more than a consecutive hour of sleep, and perhaps only 3 or 4 in total since it was tough to get back to sleep when awake.

Our fireplace was wonderful though! We bought about $80 worth of wood in total, and have burned more than half of that in the last 3 days. We easily heated the downstairs room to just shy of 60F (which is the temperature we typically keep the house in winter) and it was quite cozy. However after a couple of days the effect of the smoke and the dry air was taking it’s toll on my throat.

Oh yes, I never mentioned – last Tuesday I was diagnosed with strep throat and am on antibiotics to treat it. That means I’ve had pneumonia, bronchitis and strep inside 8 months. Crazy…

Anyway the heat and light is back, and as of now (9pm) the house is more or less back to normal. We’ll sleep well tonight, to say the least!

And BS – I’m watching the mail for my Chrissy package!