On Sunday, February 24, 2019, most of us in the Eastern United States experienced severe winds. This was predicted, and I was hoping that our power would hold out, but I wasn’t so lucky. It came as no surprise when it went out Sunday morning and we became one of the 4800 plus customers without power in Marshall County. The irony is that I had just spent $300 at the grocery store, and returned home from the store to no power. Hmm, what do I do with all of this food/meat I just bought? Fortunately, we have a small generator and we did what a lot of people do in this situation and began running extension cords from the generator throughout the house to the freezer and other necessities—like TV and our cell phone booster. TV and cell phone boosters are necessities? In this day and age and in my opinion—yes they are. We emptied out the refrigerator and put most of its contents in a cooler and sat it on the porch. That has been our “refrigerator” for the last four days. Everything that could go in our big freezer downstairs went into it.
We have alternated between running the freezer and running the furnace, and we are surviving. Luckily, we have a gas hot water heater so we are able to shower—we just can’t dry our hair. I have been getting ready for work at work in the mornings. I wish I could say that we sat around in the evenings and played cards or board games and bonded as a family during this power outage but, as I said, we made sure we have TV and cell phone coverage so that part of our evening routine has remained unchanged. Last night I washed dishes and prepared supper by Coleman lantern, but without a doubt I like having modern conveniences and never thought I would say that I was actually looking forward to being able to do my laundry. I have a newfound respect for the pioneers of yesteryear and the Amish of today, but I’ve decided I really don’t want to have to live this way. Even though I am still without power, I want to thank all of the lineman who have been working around the clock to get the power restored—you guys rock! We are now at Day 4 of “living-off-the-grid” and I am crossing my fingers that today will be the day that life gets back to normal. If not, we will persevere because what else can you do?
;)
