It's no secret that we lost power for several days last weekend/week. And with the massive heat wave plus humidity it was extremely inconvenient and uncomfortable. The first 24 hours I was just annoyed, but as we ventured out Saturday we saw....
this was a common sight all over. Our street was closed and patrolled by 3 cop cars for several days. We could get out, but to get back we had to drive the wrong direction on the wrong side of the street. Now as I was telling a sister about this she asked me if we lived in the boonies.... no, no I don't, but one would think with this sort of mess and the length of time we all had to wait to get power back you'd think that we didn't live just miles away from where the leader of our country lives. To be exact I live 11.8 miles from the White House. Luckily we had already planned a family vacation for last week so I was just trying to get to Tuesday and we'd be okay. Here's how the weekend went:
Friday night/Saturday:
We spent all day inside in the dark just hoping and praying for a miracle and that our power would be some of the first to come back. We were bored a lot and slept a lot. Luckily because I am a bit obsessive I had batteries and back up batteries for the necessary items... also lucky that baby toys seem to be battery operated and already had batteries, hmmm maybe that's why I had back ups. These black outs have happened before and for some reason we always think that they won't happen again, but then they do. And it always seems to be the hottest week or coldest week of the year... remember snowpocalypse 2010?
and snowmageddon just 2 weeks after that?(actually I'm not sure which one came first but they were one after the other)
So what's worse? Hot or Cold? I'd say the heat... at least when it was cold we could warm up and I could run the gas stove to provide a little extra heat, but when it's already so hot you try to avoid adding any kind of heat to the already overly hot space so any kind of cooked food was quickly ruled out and dry cereal, fruit and peanut butter sandwiches became our diet. And being that we were all put under strict water conservation advisement's I filled up every empty container we had with clean water just in case the water purification plants didn't get up and running. But speaking of water the lack of power also meant the lack of warm water and thus added the shock of cold showers to the list of misery. Again when it was cold we could heat water on the stove and take a warm sponge bath, but as I said the use of the stove was out out out.
Sunday day 2: I have never been so excited about going to church in my life!!! The church building had power and AC and I was going to enjoy those 3 hours of coolness. About an hour in, a couple friends who were lucky to get their power back the night before had offered a cool place for us to hang out and electricity for us to do laundry. At first I was like oh we'll be fine it's only a couple more days, but about 20 min before church ended I was fighting back tears as I was dreading the fact that I would need to return home and realized if there was ever a time to be needy and not self reliant it was now. A thousand thank you's to the Atwood's for opening their home, their freezer, washer/dryer, warm bath for the babes, and offering a hot meal and fantastic company. I still tear up when I think about what a blessing that afternoon and evening was.
Monday day 3: We were done! Almost made it to Tuesday, but why wait? When you've already planned a family vacation, have hotel reservations and friends on notice that you are going to visit why prolong the wait? So as soon as Aaron finished his partner/lunch meeting I had big plans to get out of here. And so get out we did. Aaron packed his suitcase before he left for the office and I was sooooo happy that babes took a super awesome long nap that morning allowing me to get everything packed and ready so when he woke, we took off in a fully packed air conditioned car hours before the lunch would be over. But we were excited and so we ran some errands, did some shopping, made some phone calls, and picked up Aaron to leave straight from work and put an end to the mess we were leaving behind.
I'm not quite sure when we did get our power back, but we got home early early Sunday morning to the delight of electricity and rejuvenated from a wonderful family vacation. So now that we have a very empty fridge and freezer we will be doing a full load grocery shopping spree this evening. Gotta go on a health kick after that nice Paula Deen buffet and all the other southern fried chicken I devoured.... and I wonder why I'm not bouncing back to my pre-pregnancy body ;)
this was a common sight all over. Our street was closed and patrolled by 3 cop cars for several days. We could get out, but to get back we had to drive the wrong direction on the wrong side of the street. Now as I was telling a sister about this she asked me if we lived in the boonies.... no, no I don't, but one would think with this sort of mess and the length of time we all had to wait to get power back you'd think that we didn't live just miles away from where the leader of our country lives. To be exact I live 11.8 miles from the White House. Luckily we had already planned a family vacation for last week so I was just trying to get to Tuesday and we'd be okay. Here's how the weekend went:
Friday night/Saturday:
We spent all day inside in the dark just hoping and praying for a miracle and that our power would be some of the first to come back. We were bored a lot and slept a lot. Luckily because I am a bit obsessive I had batteries and back up batteries for the necessary items... also lucky that baby toys seem to be battery operated and already had batteries, hmmm maybe that's why I had back ups. These black outs have happened before and for some reason we always think that they won't happen again, but then they do. And it always seems to be the hottest week or coldest week of the year... remember snowpocalypse 2010?
and snowmageddon just 2 weeks after that?(actually I'm not sure which one came first but they were one after the other)
So what's worse? Hot or Cold? I'd say the heat... at least when it was cold we could warm up and I could run the gas stove to provide a little extra heat, but when it's already so hot you try to avoid adding any kind of heat to the already overly hot space so any kind of cooked food was quickly ruled out and dry cereal, fruit and peanut butter sandwiches became our diet. And being that we were all put under strict water conservation advisement's I filled up every empty container we had with clean water just in case the water purification plants didn't get up and running. But speaking of water the lack of power also meant the lack of warm water and thus added the shock of cold showers to the list of misery. Again when it was cold we could heat water on the stove and take a warm sponge bath, but as I said the use of the stove was out out out.
Sunday day 2: I have never been so excited about going to church in my life!!! The church building had power and AC and I was going to enjoy those 3 hours of coolness. About an hour in, a couple friends who were lucky to get their power back the night before had offered a cool place for us to hang out and electricity for us to do laundry. At first I was like oh we'll be fine it's only a couple more days, but about 20 min before church ended I was fighting back tears as I was dreading the fact that I would need to return home and realized if there was ever a time to be needy and not self reliant it was now. A thousand thank you's to the Atwood's for opening their home, their freezer, washer/dryer, warm bath for the babes, and offering a hot meal and fantastic company. I still tear up when I think about what a blessing that afternoon and evening was.
Monday day 3: We were done! Almost made it to Tuesday, but why wait? When you've already planned a family vacation, have hotel reservations and friends on notice that you are going to visit why prolong the wait? So as soon as Aaron finished his partner/lunch meeting I had big plans to get out of here. And so get out we did. Aaron packed his suitcase before he left for the office and I was sooooo happy that babes took a super awesome long nap that morning allowing me to get everything packed and ready so when he woke, we took off in a fully packed air conditioned car hours before the lunch would be over. But we were excited and so we ran some errands, did some shopping, made some phone calls, and picked up Aaron to leave straight from work and put an end to the mess we were leaving behind.
I'm not quite sure when we did get our power back, but we got home early early Sunday morning to the delight of electricity and rejuvenated from a wonderful family vacation. So now that we have a very empty fridge and freezer we will be doing a full load grocery shopping spree this evening. Gotta go on a health kick after that nice Paula Deen buffet and all the other southern fried chicken I devoured.... and I wonder why I'm not bouncing back to my pre-pregnancy body ;)
i'm so glad you used the atwoods! not only are they great people, but they were cool! we also found relief with friends with a/c. wasn't it just miserable?!
ReplyDeleteSO miserable. Normally I prefer the Summer to Winter, but this was beyond. And I know I've said it a million times, but let me just say again how much I LOVE this new social circle of mothers I've gotten to know so much better just from spending so much time in the mother's room. Next stop is play group and it will get even better, I just have to figure out this whole nap schedule thing for month 4. wish me luck :)
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