Power outage – Linda Nelson

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Seven years have passed since we had the ice storm of 2008 that put us in the dark for 12 straight days. That was a horrible experience for all of us, especially my mother. That was the year I started writing and blogging. I hadn’t started working on that first book I published. I believe the book I was beginning to work on at that time was Aaron & Keja. I was blogging it one chapter at a time on MySpace. How times have changed, and so have I.

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The first morning when we went outside to see all the damage, we couldn’t believe our eyes. The trees had turned to glass. Any sudden sound would bring not only tree limbs but also whole trees crashing down. You had to be very careful around areas shadowed by trees until the ice melted away. All it took was one tree to let out a loud crack and other trees would answer back with their own cracking.

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I hope we never have to go through another ice storm or a snow storm where it knocks out the power for a couple of weeks, even though we’re better prepared for it now. We weren’t back then. All we had then was the two fireplaces and they don’t make them for heating a house like in the old days. That was the first thing we addressed that coming year by buying a wood stove. Which we were so glad we had gotten when the power went out last year for three days. Three days was more than enough for us to endure. At least, that time we were warm and snug inside.

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During the ice storm, when we went without the woodstove, we huddled in the living room wrapped in blankets, sitting by candle light and trying to hear any little bit we could pick up on a battery powered radio. We did have access to a battery-powered TV. But the battery ran out fast so we kept the viewing time to a minimum as we waited to learn when our power was going to be restored. In the meantime, my husband cooked our food on the gas grill for the most part. Eating foods that came from a can or that could be cooked on the grill. The local shelter that was opened did help provide a couple of hot meals too. We could have stayed at the shelter, but my mother refused to go. I think she was afraid to leave her cat behind. Maybe she felt guilty about leaving him to fend for himself in the cold.

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I wanted to remind her that he was a cat and that he had fur, but she appeared to be too stressed by the lack of electricity. Her whole world had been turned upside down. It may have been different for her had my dad been still alive. He died in ’99 and she was still in a sort of funk from his death. Years have passed since then, but I think she still gets in a kind of funk when the holidays come around. Probably because he died two weeks into the new year.

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During out power outage, I was out of work for three days. Thank God I had vacation time I could fall back on. Especially since the Christmas Holidays was right around the corner. It was bad enough I had to heat water in a kettle to wash up. I hate going for more than two days without showering. Washing out of a pot of hot water was like taking a step back in time. I was so glad when I learned that the shelter began offering hot showers to those who would like them. So people were a bit more fortunate than we were. They had family living in the area who had power and were able to stay with them.
The generators started up the first night. We heard them all around our neighborhood. We not only didn’t have a wood stove, but we also didn’t have a generator either. Now we have both.

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At least, I have hobbies I was able to fall back on while the power was out. What better time to pick up that afghan one is crocheting. It was an excellent excuse to cover up to get warm. Once again I have an afghan to work on should the power go out. I also have a quilt too. I’m set this time with plenty of projects.

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I’m so thankful that we were exempt from the Thanksgiving Snow Storm power outage of 2014. With the exception of a few power flickers, ours remained on the whole entire time. The only thing we lost was the internet and our phone. The cable was also out for a few hours on Thanksgiving Day, but I’m sure that was only so that they could repair the downed lines elsewhere.
Many people in NH didn’t get to eat their cooked Turkey on Thanksgiving Day. Some won’t be getting their power back on until Monday.
You never realize how dependent you become on the technology of our times. If it weren’t for cell phones, we wouldn’t have been able to call out for help had we needed to do so.
It was bad enough that we were lost without our internet. (Which should have been a blessing for me. It’s funny how I was able to avoid working on that work in progress. No matter what, we do learn to make excuses.)
Then when the TV went off, I should have dragged out a board game instead of leaning back on the sofa and taking that nap.
Keelaa, our new pup, who’s now almost 6 months old, didn’t enjoy the snow. She hated the fact that it was too hard for her to walk in and had to resort to hopping around when she occasionally would become stuck in the snow. Being able to eat the snow is the only benefit she found. Being like a little kid, she did take her sweater off after it filled up with snow.

Julie, on the other hand, our older dog, still loves the snow.

She would stay out for hours if we let her. I think it is funny how black dogs like to turn white by using the snow and white dogs find every muddy puddle available.
ROW80 Check In:
First off – I didn’t finish NaNo. I’m not surprised. I’ve never finished a NaNo project on time.
I did manage to clean off my desk that I’ve said I would do for the past 6 months.
I haven’t given up on Sleeping on the Beach. I did manage to give that file another 1k words.
Two weeks ago I began working on another title. It too will be published under my pseudonym of Lydia Clark. She writes my hot & sexy titles. I had so much fun writing that last one I had to come up with another one that is sort of like it. Visit Lydia Clark’s website for more information.

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Black Friday Shopping:
Most of my shopping is done – yea! I hate doing last minute shopping.
The first item I bought showed up the other day when Santa came early. It turned out to be an early present. We wasted no time hooking it up. An Amazon Fire TV with the game controller. Oh – My – God – The system is excellent. It’s nothing more than a little black box that does WiFi and plays games with outstanding graphics. It is neat as can be.
All I can do is rave about the thing. Needless to say – I did join Amazon Prime.

How did your turkey carving day go? Lots of leftovers? Did you lose your power? How did you fair?