Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Sixty Hours. And Counting.

Y'all.

I have now been 60 hours without power and no idea when we'll have it back. They say today, but I no longer trust "the man."

Sixty hours without power at my house means 60 hours without water because our well is electrically powered. Sixty hours without water means, for those of you playing along at home, 60 hours without toilets. Yeeeeah.

On Sunday when the snow started to fall, I was ecstatic. When the kids were having their first real snowball fight I was thrilled. When I gave them their first taste of snow ice cream, you couldn't have made me any happier. And when the power initially went off, my pioneer spirit kicked into gear. We bundled up. We read stories by the booklight that Bubba gave me for Christmas. We piled into beds together and told stories and sang songs. And at 8:00 p.m., we went to sleep.

My pioneer spirit started to wane when we woke on Monday to still no power, which meant NO COFFEE, but more importantly, still no toilets. Oh you can use them, you just can't flush them. Yeeeeah.

By Monday afternoon, I'd had enough. There is only so long that four people can use two toilets without flushing them, ya know what I'm sayin'? So we went to a hotel. And THAT my friends, was probably the best $79 I've ever spent.

Both kids were out of school yesterday and we had nowhere to go. So we went to Starbucks, then to Barnes & Noble (where FADKOG will be pleased to know that I purchased TWO books for use of their train table for an hour). We went to Old Navy. I even took both of them to my office for an hour. We finally went to my mom's house after we learned her power had been restored, and made plans to sleep there last night in case our power still wasn't on.

It wasn't. And still isn't. Bubba's school is still closed because most of our county is still without power. THANK GOD Punkin's school was open today or you might have heard my head explode from wherever you are. We have crap strewn from hither to yon and my car looks like we've been living in it -- which is actually starting to seem like a good plan.

I've heard different rumors about the power situation -- that our power will be on today or that we won't have power until Friday. Yesterday on my way back to my mom's from my house where I was picking up a fresh change of clothes for everyone, I saw about 8 power trucks parked outside a local restaurant (that DOES have power, for the record.) I pulled over to inquire about the ETA of electricity for my neighborhood. I was polite, but I felt like screaming at them "NO EATING, ASSHOLES! BACK TO WORK!!"

So. Here I am. At work, which is actually sweet relief. Pray for me. Or send alcohol. Or both.

Updated to add: Power was restored around 2:30 this afternoon, thank God. I've spent the evening tossing an entire refrigerator's worth of just purchased food and doing a boatload of laundry. Good times, good times. But at least I'm home.

16 comments:

Lauren said...

HAHAHA!!! I love the comment to the power workers. (chuckle)

Hope power is restored...and yes, we are getting a bit sick of the snow here too-I am beginning to remember why we decided to stay in the south....

natasha the exile on Mom Street said...

OMG.

Umm, I suggest going to Mir's house; she has both power AND plumbers!

Which means warmth as well as plenty of interesting stuff going on for Bubba to watch. And a Wii.

Really, you should just move in there. I would.

for a different kind of girl said...

AMEN! Those power workers can haul their sandwiches up whatever power pole or transformer they need to be tinkering with!! If you can't cook at home, they can't be eating out!

You're a trooper (and a saint - as a BN worker, I salute and thank you!). I seriously get freaked out if we reach the 30 minute mark without power here!

Anonymous said...

Dude! I totally wish I'd known y'all were nomads on Monday. I was home by myself with Boog AND we had power. He had no interest in playing in the snow so I set up the bouncy house he got for his birthday in our den and watched him jump for a couple of hours. Dang, and you were right down the street at B&N. Hope the power is back soon. That really sucks.

Keyona said...

Oh that sucks! So sorry and hope you get power back soon.

Laura said...

HOLY CRAP!!!!!! SO sorry! Sending wine and a flash light now!

Anonymous said...

We have prayers, alcohol, electricity, alcohol, toys, playmates, alcohol, AND an extra bedroom here! (Oh, and it's 76 degrees today.)

My friend, it sounds like a roadtrip to Texas to me!

Anonymous said...

Were they at the Waffle House? I bet they were at the Waffle House.

At least you are able to post.

I'm saying a little prayer for you and your sanity.

HalfAsstic.com said...

Oh Gawd! Hon, I know how you feel! (Ike!) Bless your heart! I hope you get it back on soon! So do you have gas or electric heat? I'm guessing electric due to the bundling up statement. If you had a way to melt the snow you could flush all the toilets you wanted...

Anonymous said...

Oh my, what an adventure. At least you have power now. And I couldn't help but laugh when you wanted to yell at the workers eating...brilliant!

calicobebop said...

Poor thing! It sucks to be without power and have the kids home. I admire your resourcefulness. Glad the power came back!!

Michele R said...

Wow I had no idea.

Burgh Baby said...

Yeeeeeah. That SUCKS. A lot. I'm glad you finally got power back, but that long without? SUCKS.

I hope you are able to get the mental image of the toilet situation out of your head soon. That one stuck with me when we had an extended outage. Oh, look. There it is again. Now I need to gouge me eyes out.

Debbie said...

That is terrible. I can't imagine. Good for you for going to the hotel!!

1blueshi1 said...

Wow, I had no idea that had happened to you just over the state line! Ours fell Sunday AM and by 5PM Sunday it was like we were back in Alabama after a morning's brief transportation to, say, Montana. In other words, I had no trouble getting to work on Monday.
Also, your self control in not going completely postal on those power guys is to be commended!

Laurel said...

Oh, merciful heavens. That is a nightmare. I'd send alcohol, but I'm fresh out. I do, however, have a lot of breast milk (finally!). However, I'm finding only one little person is interested in that stuff.

Hope things are getting back to normal.

And P.S. in case you missed the tongue in cheek, I am NOT sending any breast milk. That is just gross. :0)