Wherein I Get Blown, Lose Power and Buy Diet Coke with Oral Sex: Part II

After my birthday party at the beach we raced home and hunkered down.  (Is hunkering a New England thing or does everyone do it?)

At some point I realized that there was only 1 can of Diet Coke in the house and we were about to be hurricaned in.  The title of this post says it all but I'll rephrase it to say, "My husband generously offered to run to the store for me."

He came home and we sat down to await Irene's Wrath.

To be perfectly honest we weren't overly concerned.  First of all, hurricanes have usually blown themselves out by the time they get to New England and Irene had been downgraded several times by the time we got home Saturday night.

Apparently Irene is an emotional bitch who doesn't like being downgraded.

Because she kicked my ass.

Sunday morning my husband got up with the kids.  This was AWESOME because he'd gotten up the day before too and two days of sleeping in is better than oral sex.

I got up around 10.  I hung out with the kids.   Apparently the power had gone out during the night because I noticed the clocks blinking.  My mom called my cellphone because power loss causes my internet phone service to go offline until it's reset. 

I was still speaking to my mom at around 11 when the lights flickered and the call dropped.  It was strange because I was on my cell phone - apparently whatever made my lights flicker had also tripped the cell phone tower.

My mom called back.  A couple of minutes later the lights went out altogether.

And they've been out ever since.

Seriously - as I write this - under generator power - on Wednesday night - it has been 84 hours that we have not had power - FROM A TROPICAL STORM in NEW ENGLAND - in AUGUST.

So the power went out and the kids were all, "GIVE ME TV" and then they started twitching when they realized it wasn't going to come on - so we threw Iphones and Ipads at them until we realized that it may not come back on and "Holy crap, save that charge for me!"

(Aside: If you get an ipad spring for the 3G because I made the mistake of being all "Mommy" and saying, "No you may not have my ipad" but you can use the iphone" and then they grabbed the iphone and I tried to play Words With Friends on the iPad and it mocked me because "NO WIFI" but the phone - 3G.)

Anyway, DH actually napped on Sunday afternoon - apparently getting up at 8:30 and planning a surprise party was too much for him.  He woke up around 4pm and realizing that we still had no power said, "Hm, I should probably get the generator going."  Y'know because it was still in the box it came in (LAST DECEMBER.)

 So there he is - in a race against time with the generator while the wind is still blowing pretty well.

Note: If you're caught in a hurricane without power and you have a generator - set it up before you nap.

I shouldn't give him such a hard time about the generator because it's saved all of the food we have in the deep freezer in our basement.  I love good meat - but you knew that :) And the freezer is full of steaks. 

After the generator was up and running it was time to tuck the kids into bed.  Needless to say they weren't enthusiastic about going to bed in the pitch dark.  My husband dug out the camping lanterns and we persuaded them to go to sleep.

"The power will be back tomorrow." I said - believing it but, apparently, lying.

I'm not really sure what happened next.  The days have really run into each other. 

We got an email on Tuesday saying that they would start working on the issue today.  GREAT.

We got an email today saying that they would be offering showers at the Middle School tomorrow from 5-8pm.

That bodes ill.

Anyway, that's where we are, sitting here in the dark, stealing generator power to reach out to you and say, "We're fine, I'm really just whining."

I hope all is well with you and yours.

 

Comments

[Betty Fokker]

It's important to remember that several talking heads have snarked that the hurricane was just hype ... your power is not REALLY off. You just think it is off because you have been brainwashed by The Weather Channel. Also, the flooding in Vermont doesn't count.

[TechyDad]

I hope your power comes back on soon. We were lucky and didn't get any damage, but Irene forced us to cancel a planned 10th anniversary trip to Disney. A no-kids trip! (My parents were going to watch the kids.) As I'm typing this, I should be enjoying time alone with my wife in the Magic Kingdom. Instead, I'm in my office doing work. Yes, I'm just a little bitter.

[Mrs. MidAtlantic]

We went 60+ hours without power, thank you Irene. But thank everything for city water and a gas water heater! We took nice, hot showers the whole outage.

[Jane M]

I feel guilty writing that we got our power back yesterday and we have clean drinking water to boot! Also during the power outage we had HOT WATER so we could shower in the dark! My hair was a frizzy mess, but at least I was clean! Which is more than I can say for the next 2 towns over which have no power and no water ... WTF!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lyssie]

Oh dear lord. I would be toast.

Growing up in California obviously hasn't prepared my for life anywhere BUT California. Things like this don't happen here. I wouldn't know what to do with myself without power for more than three hours. I have the attention span of a gnat.
Pretty sure my state is brainwashing me to get me to stay.

Good luck. Protect your devices' charges with your life.