Wednesday, December 4, 2013

LIGHTING CANDLES AND STILL CURSING THE DARK

Yes, it was DARK.  It was 6:30 a.m. in December so of course it was DARK.  But it was also quiet, too quiet.  I looked out the upper window and saw MORE DARK.  Maybe everyone in the whole town had decided to turn off all their lights and stay in bed until sunrise. Or not.  It seems all the electricity had stopped flowing through all the wires to everything.
 
 The temperature was WAY below zero at minus 9F.  That’s about minus 23C for all you metric people.  It was not only DARK it was COLD and getting colder.  The good news--I was on my way to burn off some butter on my treadmill and now how had an excellent excuse to sandbag the idea.

I woke up DH when I went scrabbling around for candles.  He turned on one of his fifty flashlights, grumbled and mumbled; got dressed, put on his arctic gear and went out for firewood.

 I found a radio with batteries and learned the power was out all over the southeast side of the state. 

Soon news sources were reporting 50,000 customers of Rocky Mountain Power were in the cold and dark because of a failure at one of the substations.  Schools were closed.  Warming centers were designated.

 The power stayed off until two in the afternoon.  Our fireplace kept us warm.  We have a gas stove so we were able to cook things, but I got out of doing laundry, got some Christmas decorations up and never did get back to that treadmill.
(And I'm betting since this all happened in Idaho it won't make the national news.)

14 comments:

jeanie said...

That amount of cold just blows my mind - the coldest it gets here is about 4 Centigrade - that is without a - sign in front.

Yay for firewood.

Linda Sue said...

Oh brrrr Leenie, that reminds me to locate candles and flash lights! It has been very cold lately- I have not adjusted- at least you have a gas cooker!

Alica said...

Oh my...that's not just cold...that's frigid! What about your water pipes...did they freeze? That's my greatest "fear" in the winter.

Anonymous said...

Time to stock up on candles and batteries....

Leenie said...

Alicia, No frozen pipes. Our house is insulated pretty well and we opened doors to all the rooms with plumbing so the warmth from the fireplace would keep away disaster.

joeh said...

First I heard of it. Damn...that is cold!!

During Sandy we had no power for 10 days. Big pots of water steaming on the Gas stove acted as boilers and helped warm the house...of course the temperature was never below 40...pretty balmy compared to below zero.

Jenny Woolf said...

Oh, cold and dark, just hate that combination! Specially when it is as cold as THAT!

Anonymous said...

Another reason I'm happy I live in Southern California!!

Joanne Noragon said...

Grrr,brrr, that is teeth chattering. We heard about it on Leenie News at six o'clock.
We were out one winter for three days. My bil kept calling from the road, encouraging us to fire up his never tested, third hand, thirty year old generator. Women are more resourceful than that. We had a gas stove and a fireplace.

Val said...

I feel your pain. Well. I feel a tiny bit of your discomfort. We have been losing power willy-nilly every time a tree limb falls on the electric lines.

We have a sleet/snow storm heading in on Thursday. I just sent my husband to town for generator gas. We won't get that cold. Lows Friday around 9 degrees.

I'm hoping our power lines dodge this icy bullet.

Sarah said...

Ha ha-sounds as if you benefitted from the power cut in many ways! I am glad you had your fire to keep you warm. Our school was closed this afternoon due to a power cut caused by a power surge just outside which caused a manhole cover to blow off! When the electricity goes in the school (I discovered) it also means that there is no water. Ridiculous!

Buttons Thoughts said...

Sure is pretty in the dark. You would think you lived in Canada:)Take care OK Hug B

TALON said...

Glad you weren't without power too long, Leenie, and glad you had the gas to keep things warm. I didn't hear about this...you're right - some locations don't warrant national attention. We've been weaving in/out of those temps...and I know more is coming. It's supposed to be 2 (F) next week for a daytime high. Eeek!

Terry and Linda said...

That is a HUGE power outage. Terry was a lineman/foreman for 37 years for the local power company here. I so remember those long nights where he left and didn't return until the next day or even later. We are so dependent on our electrical supply.

You are so much colder than us! BUT THE SUN is shinning here so I can take the cold now that I can see the SUN!

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
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