Basic Comforts
On Wednesday night during a windy rainy thunderstorm, our electricity went out. OH MY. I dug through the junk drawer (I have three in the kitchen) for the flashlights. Out of four, one worked. Phew. Every time the power is out, I am beside myself with anger, disbelief and doubt.
Those beautiful woods that surround me also isolate me from multiple sources of power lines. There is only one and when it goes, well I'm in the dark. The house is all electric so there is no heat, no water and obviously no electricity. We were without power for 24 hours. The frig food was tossed. According to the internet my freezer food is okay. I'm going on faith.
So as I grumbled, scowled and froze my $## off in my house, I give to you the gratitude list:
-for the crewmen who work crazy hours round the clock giving back electricity. They are angels and I'm grateful (I'm not grateful for the electric company who doesn't hire enough crewmen and made me wait....)
-for a dear friend, who I can text at 6:30 a.m. and ask for a shower and some charging stations for my phone and ipad. For a cup of coffee after the shower and some sweet sitting relaxing and talking while waiting for a full charge.
-for my winter coat and a cowl that kept me warm in my house as I sat and read a book
-for a dinner out, WARM food and a hot cup of tea :)
-for Frodo who doesn't know what's going on and is covered in hair/fur and is snuggly warm
-for the comforts of home--modernism at it's finest
-for friends who prayed and my son-in-law who might have a direct line to God (or the crewmen...).
-for TV, Netflix, hairdryers, coffee makers, microwaves, ovens, turning on a light, the heat, flushing a toilet without a bucket of swimming pool water.
-OH the swimming pool!!! we have 36000 gallons of water to flush if needed :)
May you have a wonderful weekend full of electricity!!
I am glad your power was restored, even if it took them 24 hours. I remember when the tornado hit we were without power for 8 days. The little things you take for granted are big things when the power is out... We do have a gas fire place and stove, but just in case we even bought a kerosene heater. We learned the hard way that we need to be prepared...
ReplyDeleteThese events remind us of how lucky we truly are and you are wise enough to know this. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm glad it wasn't much longer, and that you had a place to shower, etc. Mostly I'm glad for your sake that things are back as they should be now. :-)
ReplyDeleteYour post truly reminds us how thankful we should be for things we take for granted, electricity been one of them. Glad to hear all is well now.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are used to having electricity it is quite an adjustment to have it disappear! We went without it for 6 days a couple summers ago. It was a challenge.
ReplyDelete24 hours without power feels a lot longer than it sounds! Especially when your toilet needs electricity. It's so true that we take important things for granted.
ReplyDeleteThat wind was fearsome! We lost power for only 8 hours, so it was really just an inconvenience, but certainly a reminder to be prepared and grateful. I'm glad your basic comforts are back!
ReplyDeleteso glad you had so much support! we are so blessed! We keep a stash of candles and batteries here. Also we have (via amazon) a handheld little power bank for cell phones that we keep charged up. After living through hurricane Sandy, we try to be ready!!! A gas stove is a wonderful thing, but perhaps you have electric? HUGS and glad power is back on! What a blessing!
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean... I will never forget September, 2014 when we were hit by the strongest hurricane in history in our area. We've been without electricity for 2 weeks, without water for 3 weeks and have been living in the house without a single window for 8 weeks (all our windows got smashed out by the hurricane and every single house in the neighborhood needed windows, so there was a huge waiting list)!! It really made me appreciate simple things like washing dishes with tap water and taking shower. I will never take these things for granted again!
ReplyDeleteWe lose power so often that we have a French press and hand coffee bean grinder and lots of flashlights. The Little House on the Prairie life gets old quickly. Happy you are empowered again.
ReplyDeleteOh dear. Im so sorry. We have been lucky with the storms so far this month....
ReplyDeleteSO glad to hear that you have power back, and that you at least had Frodo to snuggle with. Friends are a lifesaver when you don't have power, and how fortunate that you had the pool to be able to flush the toilet! But all in all, it's certainly much more comfortable to have you power restored.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear things are better! Although we haven't lost power in ages, we used to every couple of months due to aging infrastructure in our neighborhood. Every time it would go out, I would think to myself that I guess I should just clean and then be surprised when I would remember that, oops! can't vacuum without power! Your list of gratefuls is spot on! Have a wonderful weekend...
ReplyDeletexoxoo
I'm glad your power is back on. A couple years ago, a late October storm took my parents' electricity out for 11 days. My mother was so glad they had enough bathrooms so they could each have their own to make gross.
ReplyDeleteWow, you are seriously affected. Great thankful list, especially having someone nearby where you can take a shower.
ReplyDeleteOh, Karen I am so glad your power is back on!! You must have been so fed up!! Enjoy the warm and the light and the hot water and all your appliances. Have a good {electricity filled} weekend xx
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your power is back on! This is a lovely post - even though you had to struggle without power - it made me think of all the things that I'm grateful for too :) :)
ReplyDeleteLosing power in the winter is probably one of the scariest things! So glad you had someplace to go to for a shower and power charge :) And glad that it's back. xo
ReplyDeleteWe got hit with a storm the same night. But thankfully, our power was only off for about two minutes (the two minutes I needed to finish dinner) - but it came right back on and we got to eat - yeah! The worse we've ever been through is 2 and a half days with no power - and it was a 100 degrees out! But we were lucky as other people's power was out for a week or more.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got yours back and that you are all snug and safe and warm again!
Linda in VA
So happy to hear your power is back on. It isn't until we are without it that we realize just how much we depend on it. Enjoy your weekend Karen.
ReplyDeleteWhoa! So happy to hear your power has been restored and that you have friends to help. Your remind me to be grateful for my everyday comforts. Wishing you a warm weekend full of cozy yarn, a good book, and hot tea.
ReplyDeleteI like how you turned your recap into a gratitude list. Good things to be grateful for :)
ReplyDeleteI hate it when we lose power- either in a wind storm or the coldest frigid winters day in MT. We have 2 fireplaces and tons of wood - now I'm thinking we need a pool, that sounds handy. Enjoy your electric and your weekend :)
ReplyDeleteI can totally understand what you've been through. I've been in similar situations and unfortunately not only one time. Enjoy all those little things we take for granted.
ReplyDeleteTHese are the types of things we "Prep" for. We have a generator to hook up to our house that will run almost everything in it. Because we are "soft" and can't live without them! :)
ReplyDeleteWe have a generator that can power our furnace, frig, lights and microwave. I've been your route and completely sympathize :-o.
ReplyDeleteour gratitude always seems to suffer until we're without!!!!....our ice storm a few years ago left us without electricity for over a week in January. Playing pioneer woman got a bit old quickly, but a fireplace placed on an interior wall (why are so many in NEW houses placed on an exterior wall where they can't heat a whole room???) made life warm(er) and cozy and all the winter knits helped a LOT!!!----there isn't a day that goes by that I'm not thankful for our 21st century luxuries of stoves and heat!!!
ReplyDeleteGlad you're back in business....I strongly suggest purchasing either a camping light or an old oil lamp; you simply can't rely on those flashlights!!!! (we burned some candles during that outage, and I discovered you never ever ever want to burn a cheap candle for an extended period of time....they 'leak' and spew candle wax everywhere; I still have wax I haven't been able to remove from some hooked rugs.)
I'm happy to hear you survived your off grid experience !!! Such a drag about having to toss out the fridge contents though (UGH) We lost power once and we had to have everyone over for a barbeque so the freezer meat wouldn't go to waste. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got your power back. I'll never forget Hurricane Isabel that left us without power for 13 days. At first it was frustrating, then it became scary & eventually we started having fun trying to figure out ways to survive. Ok, I may have been the only one having any fun, and I have to admit, we probably would not have remained married if the power hadn't come back on on day 14. We did lear a LOT about survival though. We were also very lucky that it was September so not too hot, not too cold. Stay warm!
ReplyDeleteWhew, glad your power was turned back on. Stinks about having to toss food- I hate it when that happens.
ReplyDeleteLove your list of grateful things...especially Frodo. That made me smile. :)
There is nothing worse than losing power, especially when you don't have a fireplace to help keep you warm! I'm so glad you had a friend who was able to offer you a warm shower and a place to chill (pun intended) while you waited for the power to return. I hope you have had a warm and sunny weekend, Karen! xx
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing worse than loosing your power is there. We lost ours for four days when my eldest was a few weeks old. It was a nightmare for a couple of days, I grew up in a house without central heating (it was installed when I was about six) so I guess I was fine as a baby! We have gas and a fire which heats our water so we were not totally reliant. We burnt lots of candles and went to bed early!
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