Power Outage
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 by Amy
So, apparently there was some tropical storm Tomas that caused wind gust of 63 miles and hour and constant wind of over30 miles per hour on Sunday night. By midnight our power was out. Riley's school was canceled on Monday. We thought, it will be back on by morning, no biggie. When we woke up we were greeted with the most discomforting sound: the sound of dozens of generators kicking on. Oh, turds, we think, I guess this is a common occurrence here, and we do not have a generator!
The house got progressively colder and colder. I boiled water on the stove like a tenant in a slum. Did you know that steam sets off smoke alarms if there's enough of it? Well, I learned that for sure, but I was able to boil the water for a couple hours before that happened, and we got a tad warmer. As the day dragged on and we still had no power, we went to eat at Wendy's (barf) and headed over to Walmart to get some oil lamps and flashlights. We were hoping they would be for "next time," hoping that the power would be back on when we returned home, as it was just getting dark.
No dice, power was still out! Riley was panicking. She was so fearful and begged to go to a hotel. Rudi comforted her while I got ourselves arranged, lighting all the oil lamps and candles that we bought, and gathering all the covers in one room. Fun.
We went to bed with hats on, as it had been nearly 24 hours at this point that the power had been out and the warm air that was in the house had long since escaped. The basement had an inch of water in it. Waking up Tuesday morning was terrible! It was absolutely freezing in our house. It was in the 30s overnight, and we were without heat for two nights. I swear, it couldn't have been more than 45-50 degrees in our house Tuesday morning!
I was happy when the power was restored to Riley's school on Tuesday. At least she could spend the day in warmth and light. After dropping her off, we three went to Borders to be in a warm place and drink warm drinks. Again, we were hoping that the power would be back on by the time we got home. But again, turning down our street, we were greeted with the familiar sound of generators running. However, the tree company (whatever they're called) was in our neighborhood cutting trees away from the power lines. Everyone on the street was outside talking over coffee, waiting for the power to be back on. Rudi and I joined our neighbor outside with our coffee. The neighbor said that our street and the next street over are the only ones in South Portland that didn't get power restored the night before. It was around 11:30 am by this time. Turns out, Central Maine Power is filled with bumbling idiots. Apparently they could have turned the power back on at any time, but made the tree people go out first and cut the branches away. So, it's not like we lost power, more like they turned off our power. Oh, and the neighbor pointed out a tree to us that we hadn't noticed, right outside his door. A leaning tree with a split trunk had one of its trunks growing between the power lines, resting on the lower one. He called Central Maine Power to have them cut the tree back, and they told him that he (the neighbor) would have to pay for it, as they do nothing until it falls. Um, what? The trunk is literally leaning on the power line!
The power finally came on at noon on Tuesday, which added up to 36 hours without electricity or heat.
So, Rudi and I have come tot he grim realization that we need a generator. I haven't told Rudi this, because we all know how he is, but in searching the internet on my phone for updates on the outage, I found that there are generally several lengthy power outages over the winter here. Like, days-long power outages in January. There is NO WAY that we are doing this again. Unfortunately, there is also NO WAY that we can afford a generator in the near future. First, I have no idea how big of a generator we would need. We would like to run the sump pump, heat, and electricity on one level of the house, as well as the refrigerator (which can be turned off and on, to keep in the safe zone, but not necessarily running all the time). Prices vary wildly on generators, but we're probably looking at about 600-700 dollars. That's a lot of money! Yes, we could save up the money, and we may have enough by the time winter is over, but then...winter would be over. I know they have significantly cheaper ones at Home Depot, and I'll have to check them out. I don't know if they are big enough.
So, Riley is coming along quite well in reading. I am so very proud of her! She's gone up three-four levels in the past 2 weeks. She is just devouring books. There's just something about watching your child curl up on the couch with a chapter book!
Oh, and she has two more loose teeth, the ones on either side of her top center teeth. Although they're both loose, she is really working on getting one of them out. There is a chart at her school which records which students lost teeth in which months. Since she lost her last tooth during the move, she is not on the chart yet. Apparently the chart is important!
I'll try to take and post pictures of some sort later, but am busy looking at quilts right now, and need to close some tabs, so I'm letting this one fly!
The house got progressively colder and colder. I boiled water on the stove like a tenant in a slum. Did you know that steam sets off smoke alarms if there's enough of it? Well, I learned that for sure, but I was able to boil the water for a couple hours before that happened, and we got a tad warmer. As the day dragged on and we still had no power, we went to eat at Wendy's (barf) and headed over to Walmart to get some oil lamps and flashlights. We were hoping they would be for "next time," hoping that the power would be back on when we returned home, as it was just getting dark.
No dice, power was still out! Riley was panicking. She was so fearful and begged to go to a hotel. Rudi comforted her while I got ourselves arranged, lighting all the oil lamps and candles that we bought, and gathering all the covers in one room. Fun.
We went to bed with hats on, as it had been nearly 24 hours at this point that the power had been out and the warm air that was in the house had long since escaped. The basement had an inch of water in it. Waking up Tuesday morning was terrible! It was absolutely freezing in our house. It was in the 30s overnight, and we were without heat for two nights. I swear, it couldn't have been more than 45-50 degrees in our house Tuesday morning!
I was happy when the power was restored to Riley's school on Tuesday. At least she could spend the day in warmth and light. After dropping her off, we three went to Borders to be in a warm place and drink warm drinks. Again, we were hoping that the power would be back on by the time we got home. But again, turning down our street, we were greeted with the familiar sound of generators running. However, the tree company (whatever they're called) was in our neighborhood cutting trees away from the power lines. Everyone on the street was outside talking over coffee, waiting for the power to be back on. Rudi and I joined our neighbor outside with our coffee. The neighbor said that our street and the next street over are the only ones in South Portland that didn't get power restored the night before. It was around 11:30 am by this time. Turns out, Central Maine Power is filled with bumbling idiots. Apparently they could have turned the power back on at any time, but made the tree people go out first and cut the branches away. So, it's not like we lost power, more like they turned off our power. Oh, and the neighbor pointed out a tree to us that we hadn't noticed, right outside his door. A leaning tree with a split trunk had one of its trunks growing between the power lines, resting on the lower one. He called Central Maine Power to have them cut the tree back, and they told him that he (the neighbor) would have to pay for it, as they do nothing until it falls. Um, what? The trunk is literally leaning on the power line!
The power finally came on at noon on Tuesday, which added up to 36 hours without electricity or heat.
So, Rudi and I have come tot he grim realization that we need a generator. I haven't told Rudi this, because we all know how he is, but in searching the internet on my phone for updates on the outage, I found that there are generally several lengthy power outages over the winter here. Like, days-long power outages in January. There is NO WAY that we are doing this again. Unfortunately, there is also NO WAY that we can afford a generator in the near future. First, I have no idea how big of a generator we would need. We would like to run the sump pump, heat, and electricity on one level of the house, as well as the refrigerator (which can be turned off and on, to keep in the safe zone, but not necessarily running all the time). Prices vary wildly on generators, but we're probably looking at about 600-700 dollars. That's a lot of money! Yes, we could save up the money, and we may have enough by the time winter is over, but then...winter would be over. I know they have significantly cheaper ones at Home Depot, and I'll have to check them out. I don't know if they are big enough.
So, Riley is coming along quite well in reading. I am so very proud of her! She's gone up three-four levels in the past 2 weeks. She is just devouring books. There's just something about watching your child curl up on the couch with a chapter book!
Oh, and she has two more loose teeth, the ones on either side of her top center teeth. Although they're both loose, she is really working on getting one of them out. There is a chart at her school which records which students lost teeth in which months. Since she lost her last tooth during the move, she is not on the chart yet. Apparently the chart is important!
I'll try to take and post pictures of some sort later, but am busy looking at quilts right now, and need to close some tabs, so I'm letting this one fly!
