We were just taking up dinner here in our greater Gig Harbor when in the distance we heard a transformer explode and the house went black. This threw us into emergency mode getting out lanterns, lighting candles, pulling Christmas decorations away from the hearth, moving the big philodendron that sits on the wood insert and starting a fire. We can keep the house at around 62 if the insert is kept fueled, but it is best to have a head start by getting the fire going ASAP. While still scrambling to get things organized Dave called from Seattle Flight Service. It seems that few employees made it in to work today. Seeing how there’s to be more snow tonight and seeing how he is the only one there this evening, he’s staying put up there with his sleeping bag and pillow. He always goes prepared to stay this time of year.
We got ourselves organized and sat back down to dinner by candle light. As we were bringing the dishes to the kitchen to hand wash(we have a gas water heater so we can always take showers and wash dishes) when the lights came back on. We decided to hold the house temp for the night and leave the pellet stove in the family room going just in case.
Our record for being without power is three days. The three days in 2006 for the Hanukah storm was a walk in the park compared to the three days in 1996 in the ice storm. I hope everyone is warm and with a well stocked larder.
8 comments:
Brrrrr! Stephanie... I congratulate you and your family on your flexibility. All I can see myself doing if we had a power outage would be surrounding myself with a lot of blankets and going to sleep...
The best to you and yours...
Joseph
In the end, Joseph, that is the best possible course of action! Thank goodness for battery operated radios.
You're so organized and prepared! Ever consider yet another career in government service?
It's funny, but the three years we lived on the Long Beach Peninsula we never had a big problem with power. When we first moved here our lights would go out all the time and we had to learn how to keep this funny old and somewhat big house warm enough that everyone could sleep in their own bed. It was easier when we had a wood stove in the family room, but we replaced it with a more ecological and less work pellet stove which is useless without power. We still have a 1970s wood insert in the living room which can be used for heat and cooking. I have a friend down the road who is on a pump and has to organize water, too. At least that's not on my to-do list!
Glad it was just a quickie Stephanie!
Peninsula Light has done a great job, both through last winter's storms and now this...touch wood!!
Yes, they were here a week ago trimming trees along 70th Ave. N.W. before the snow started falling and after years and years of faulty transformers they replaced them along this street a few years ago. Just to be on the safe side we kept the home fires burning last night. Here's hoping to get over 32 today!
In my grandma's neighborhood in Tacoma, the neighbors are great--there are a couple of single elderly women on the block (that includes Grandma). The neighbors had a meeting on a contingency plan should the power fail. The organized a meeting place, supply lists, and a phone tree.
Awesome!
Very awesome, Kim! When disaster strikes we all crawl out and make sure everyone is okay, but are not so organized. It's a good idea. I had wanted to do that last year before storm season, but with Ana gone to Brazil I didn't have the time to organzie it. This year it just fell out of my whole filled mind. A great idea for the future!
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