....where was i... so i start to make my trek home. i get on the mass pike and immediately, i'm going 10mph... now mind you, they had already reduced the speed limit from 65 to 45 b/c of the road conditions but 10?! 10?! so i'm driving along, trying not to freak out that i'm low on gas (ps. remember when they told you to fill up before a storm? do it the morning before... not after the storm starts)... anyway... so my 15 drive turned into a 45 minute drive... but being as i was covered in white face paint i opted to go home and wash my face and shower first. this turned out to be the best idea i had all day. so i showered, made a list of things i needed to make some turkey chili and headed to the grocery store. it was GROSS out, but i was still convinced that a power outage would be minimal... a day or so... so i was going to make some turkey chili and then i'd just keep it to eat over the next week... yum! before hitting up big Y, i stopped for gas... something told me do it now, or else... once, i think i heard that if you have a full tank of gas, you won't slide around as much. it's probably bullshit but if it's the reason that that made me fill up, so be it! so... i filled up and moved on to big y. i picked up the necessary items plus a few extra things for snacks and for pat and headed home. i got my chili going on the stove, threw on the tv and just relaxed while it cooked... a little while later i made myself a nice bowl of chili. it was delicious... i snuggled up on the couch with coors (the dog) and waited patiently for pat to find out if he had to work till 10 or if they would let him out early because of the weather. around 7:15, he texted me saying "we're getting out in a little bit"... i think he called to say he was on the road about 7:40ish and again around 7:55 to tell me he was pulled over b/c the road was closed for a few minutes. at this point, i was excited for him to come home and for us to not only spend some unplanned time together but also to catch up on DVR'd shows from last week. until 8:00.... when i hear the sound that everyone hates to hear... the death of all things electrical, simultaneously... power... out... pat came home about 5 minutes later and he too was less than thrilled about the lack of all things electric... around 9:30, we retreated to bed as it was too dark to see ANYTHING... luckily, i had charged the kindle and phone so i could read a bit... we both fell asleep only to wake up multiple times during the night to the cracking and subsequently, trees hitting the ground. around 1, i made pat go out to make sure our cars were okay and that the house didn't have any major damage... he came back in and because i was satisfied with his detailed description, we were able to go back to bed... and woke up to this...
the first picture is... my car.. no seriously. that branch got SO heavy that it covered my entire car and somehow, by the grace of god, did not break... or else, it'd be a new car for me which i would not have complained about but only would have added to the mess... (oh. ps... no power at this point, still)... the second is a tree in my front yard that snapped and was laying in the road. we lost something from all the trees, which was awesome. but.... despite the scene, at least someone was happy....
so... pat went off to work after shoveling and i plugged the phone into the car and retreated back to bed to read and stay warm.. it was a balmy 56* at this point so it wasn't too too bad... sunday night we took a trip to hooters for some dinner because we couldn't find anything else open. dinner was good and it was nice to be out with lights, tv and warmth. (add to the power bullshit that the Pats lost). we got home and went back to bed becuase lets face it, after over 24 hours without power, the house was staring to get cold... we made it through sunday night and i went into work monday morning. we transformed work to accommodate another company without power and upon returning home to a house that was now 40*, we opted to make the move to my parents house to spend the nights in front of the fire.
that was monday... it's thursday... neither i, nor my parents have power... i have been showering at work, throwing elbows at people at the laundry mat and have changed my casual "hi, how are you" for a "do you have power" greeting. to say it is getting old is an understatement. my clothes have a constant stench of fireplace smoke, i'm exhausted from getting up every few hours to feed the fire, and i'm about ready to throw all the dogs out into the snow... they are estimating my restoration to be tomorrow by 12 noon but i "should be cautioned as this is just an estimate and actual times may be later than anticipated". but rest assure "we at Western Mass Electric won't stop until power has been restored to the last customer".....
115 hours later... that's reassuring.....
No comments:
Post a Comment