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.
