I’m here! I’m here! I made it back to you! It’s been soooo long! I’ve been desperately trying to get back, one tactic after another, but have been foiled every time!! First the power, then the cable, then the phone lines. It’s cold here. Not like some of you endure, but we south’ners FREAK out at the slightest hint of frozen precip. The whole city shuts down, and in this case, 650,ooo of Duke Power’s 2 million customers, us included. It will be remembered as the Great Ice Storm of ‘05, which for us, means ONE day of real ice, losing loads of trees, knocking out power lines from here to Cowpens, and to Charlotte, and back, and all destinations around and in between. When I called to check on our STATUS with the power company late yesterday (after 36 hours in the cold and dark), I was told the ticket from our neighborhood stated “multiple downed lines and live wires burning”. Duh. I knew that. When, praytell, would you be repairing said lines? Um, that’ll be Tuesday, by midnight, at the earliest. I was then told 16 states were coming to our lil’ ol’ rescue, and to hang tight. Stay warm. Is he freaking kidding me??? Now, when I am not shaking from such a jolt of immediate blog juice, after the dry spell, and my hands begin to relax and steady (easy, now, eeaaasssy), I’ll regale you with tales of camp outs around our fire, lots of red wine (gotto stay warm), and games of Life around the coffee table, huddled under blankets…and a small dog so chilled, he had to wear a coat. I know. You Yanks are laughing your thermo undied butts off. But please remember, down here, it can be 75 on Christmas day.
So now, we have our DSL back, thanks to a little 750 watt inverter running from our truck battery, while the truck purrs and burns $172 worth of fuel over the next couple of days. We also have one lamp, one TV with no cable, and one blessed DVD player. We’ve had enlightenment along the way, and now 80 some odd hours in, these small things are very appreciated. I’ve had one shower in this time, today, as our fellow southners down the street freaked more than we did and spent $400 on a big generator, $150 on a kerosene heater to be run by the generator, and allowed me a few amps to come blow my hair. Heaven. And, I took my hot rollers. Exquisite.
This morning, the house said 39 degrees, making last night the coldest yet, and I did not get good sleep because of this. But I did have a big bed, and several blankets. And in the dark, I had a hard time washing and cleaning our dishes by hand last night (big aaawww), so left it for the light of day to show me what pigs we were in our pizza eating. So these things await me, and must be done before sundown in a couple of hours. Then, then I will come back to my beloved spot in cyber space, and try to capture, just a bit, what the last few days have been. I feel like Ma Ingalls, with the sun as my guide. Except, the locusts won’t eat our yearly income, and my biggest complaint is a chill, greasy hair, and red wine below the proper room temp. Boo hoo, huh. We have lost a couple of hundred bucks worth of goceries (Smart me, I stocked up 14 hours BEFORE the power outage, in anticipation of the storm. Brilliant.) But, still can’t complain, as we are blessed enough to just go out and restock after we get both our fridges up and running again. Truly can’t say anything but thanks God for these things. They mean a lot. Although, if he’d prod those power company dudes a bit, I wouldn’t mind at all.
Oh, the sweet relief of being back. The rush of calm, my nerves steadying. Does this truly qualify me as addicted? If so, don’t save me. Just leave me to my little corner of the blogosphere, and come visit and tell me I’m great every now and then. That’s all I need. Well, that and a little heat. And oh, some survival tips from you that are experienced in such matters couldn’t hurt.
