STORMY WEATHER
We've lived in the country for three years now, and every winter there has been one huge storm that results in plenty of people in our area losing power. But not us - we've never had so much as a light flicker. So this time, I had a feeling we were due.
Monday evening, I started making preparations. We had about a dozen battery-powered lanterns I bought ages ago at Pier One in case Ted's outdoor 40th birthday party in our yard ended up being a nighttime party (it didn't):
We also had a whole bunch of battery-powered pillar "candles" that I made Ted buy at Costco so that I could put candles in the windows for the holidays. Yes, I am aware that Christmas is months away, but they were on sale (OMG, I sound like fucking TED!):
Anyway, Monday at around 6 PM, even though the electricity is humming along fine, I get out all the batteries from the battery drawer (for some reason, our family has a ridiculous number of batteries on hand at all times - I have no idea why) and start putting them in the lanterns and candles. Ted's all like, "WTF are you doing? Everything's fine." But I just knew. And sure enough, at around 7, the power went out:
and I quickly went from looking like a over-anxious fool to a prescient genius. Yay! Although being right, in this case, meant that we had no power. No heat. No hot water. No landline. No decent cell service. No WiFi. It's amazing how losing things makes you realize very quickly just how reliant you are on them. Of course, we made the best of a sucky situation, playing board games:
and basically trying not to kill any family members while we were trapped inside the house (due to all the live power lines lying around in the streets) for four days without television or the Internet to help us avoid each other.
The power came back on at 1 AM Friday morning, and I had a perma-grin for 24 hours. But unfortunately, others aren't so lucky - many of them in my old neighborhoods of Manhattan. Sweet Sissy has been volunteering all day, lugging water and blankets up 16 flights of stairs to reach cold and thirsty elderly people, and I'm joining her tomorrow. Tonight I'm going to bed very grateful for everything that I take for granted 99% of the time.
I hope all five of you are safe and sound and surrounded by loved ones, too.
XOXOXO
ABC
