32 Hours and Counting

Just a quick update via my phone to let you know, I still do not have power. The first day without electricity, I just stayed inside, thinking surely the power would be restored soon.

For lunch that day I had canned tuna fish mixed with a little mayonnaise and chopped onion, eaten on a few celery sticks. The mayo was still trustworthy at that point. Supper was a can of beans. I haven’t been that hungry anyway because of the cold I’ve had which seems to be getting better now.

Fortunately, I have a gas hot water heater so I was able to shower and wash my hair yesterday. My hair dried much faster than I expected without the aid of a blow dryer. I’m going for an all-natural look today since I couldn’t use any of my heated styling tools. Lol

The power company that services my area cannot or will not give an estimated time for the reestablishment of services. That is the most frustrating part, having no idea when to expect the electricity to return. It’s a little chilly in the house since it’s 55 degrees outside, but not too bad, yet.

Today, I decided to attempt raising the massive, wood garage door on my home that expands the entire width of the garage so I could leave for a short while to get lunch through a drive-thru and to charge my phone via my car. I’ve been charging my phone using my laptop which has a good size battery on it that was thankfully fully charged up when all of this started.

Raising my garage door was much easier than I expected. I had my garage door opener replaced a few years back and perhaps that’s why it was easier than I remembered from the past. The current opener must be better balanced because the door went up and came down much easier than I had expected.

Everywhere I drove today, I saw large trees down and power lines dangling and hanging super low. Two of the intersections near my home were functioning as four-way stops since the traffic lights were not working. Another major intersection was fully blocked off as crews worked in the center of the road.

 

Based on all the crews I saw out working in our area, I can’t help but think that the electricity will be restored sometime today. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I’m going to have to toss out much of the food in my refrigerator. If the power had come back on last night, I think the majority of it could have been saved, but at this point, I think a lot of it will have to go.

Hopefully I will be able to post the table I created for Tablescape Thursday later today or this evening. Thanks for your patience as I await the return of electricity to my home.

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Comments

  1. We have a whole house generator- may be something to consider.

    • Thankfully, this happens rarely here, our winters are normally pretty mild. I think this is only the second or third time I’ve been without electricity for more than a few hours in the 30 years I’ve lived here.

  2. Susan, you mentioned changing your electric stove to gas. We have a small Coleman propane camp stove we cook on when the utilities go out for any length of time. It’s not a huge investment and will cook bacon, eggs, warm soup etc. We use ours on our screened in porch. Maybe something to keep in mind. They use the small bottles of propane. Hope you get power soon! If your freezer is packed full, it may hold 48 hours but it’s all relative to size of freezer and what’s in it. Stay safe and feel better soon!

  3. Cindy Cottrell says

    Good luck and stay safe and may I highly suggest that you review all the good things a generator can do. It does take work to hook everything up with extension cords, but you will find that will be the most work you will have to do. We’ve had several 2 day power outages here in central VA for years on end and the time spent plugging in necessary items like space heaters, refrigerators, iphones, ipads, and plug in lights has been worth the $. If you can pull a cord – like you would on a push mower, you should be able to operate a generator. About the size of a window unit Air Conditioner- just be sure to keep it outside when in operation. Honda makes a good one.

  4. Hate when that happens. Hope all is on soom!

  5. Deena Salvatore says

    Susan, girlfriend, do yourself a favor a get a generator. You’ll never throw food out or eat beans for dinner again. Here’s hoping your power is restored soon! ❤️ Deena

  6. Please in the future, consider a whole house generator. We have found it well worth the investment, if only for the peace of mind. Stay safe and healthy.

  7. Need a natural gas generator for the essentials

  8. Susan – I feel your pain! We just had power restored yesterday after being without for 4 days (Oklahoma ice storm). Fortunately, we have a small gas generator and were able to rotate plugging in our fridge/upright freezer and coffee pot. It was a God-send! That said – we will be investing in a whole house generator. We get enough wind/thunder/ice storms around here to justify the expense. Hope you get your power restored very soon.

  9. Have you checked with your homeowner’s insurance about replacing your food ?

    • It turned out that a lot of it was okay in the refrigerator, I just had to throw out most of what I had in the freezer which wasn’t that terribly much. I guess I probably lost maybe $100 worth of groceries, not enough to really report to insurance. Just remembered, I forgot to buy mayo when I went to the grocery store today. Lol Thanks for that suggestion, Myrna!

      • If it is cold outside, such as 55 degrees, you can just move your food from your refrigerator to outside, such as on your back porch. I did that during Storm Sandy in 2012 – moved my food/drinks out to my apartment balcony to keep my them refrigerated and fresh. Natural refrigeration.

  10. I am glad your power has been restored! I noticed you mentioned charging your phone while you were out driving. Do I remember correctly that your suitcase has a built in charging station?

    I keep my external charger charged. It will charge multiple devices st once, including the laptop.

    Glad your damage from the storm was minimal.

    Susan

  11. Catching up reading your posts. Is your freezer frost free? Mine isn’t and so I think my food would stay frozen for a longer period of time since I only defrost every other year! Takes forever to melt when I do turn it off. Also, when you were out shopping would it have helped to get a few bags of ice and transfer some items to a cooler? We are always saying we should get a generator and yet we haven’t. Heat and cook with propane (but we would have no water because we are on a well) and then there’s the woodstove if power goes out in the winter.

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