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January 03, 2007
B-O-R-E-D. and C-O-L-D.
Now, I love my in-laws. But compared to my clan, they are not talkers. Practically anybody compared to my clan are not talkers, though, so that's not saying much. (Laugh now if you know my family. We visit, talk, and chat incessantly.)
So when I'm with the InLaws, I rely on things like movies, TV, music, and other electronic entertainment to grease the wheels and give us all something to do. It has been working out well. Until Saturday morning.
The Dude was chilled, so he got out of bed to turn on the space heater. "What the?" I heard. I mumbled in my hazy half-sleep, "Maybe the power's out." We had gone to sleep with 32-degree weather and slushy rain the night before. Lo and behold, the electric alarm clock was not glowing red. So we knew: no power.
Hence the chilly room. No heater. Hence the quiet downstairs: No stereo. Hence the dim rooms: No lights. We dressed, went downstairs, and found MiL and FiL looking for the camp stove, rustling up candles and camping lanterns, and finding extra blankets for the beds.
All day Saturday. The phone was working, so the elders conspired and decided to call of church...because the sanctuary was dark and cold. It was still raining and it turned to lovely large flakes of snow puffs gently falling (a lovely sight for my snow-starved eyes), so we didn't head outside if we didn't have to.
All day Sunday in the cold and dark. The cold inside the house was growing, so Sunday some of us bundled up and went outside for a walk and a change of scenery. The trees and everything were so beautiful, but you could see how it could cause so much damage to the power lines: an inch of ice on every tree twiglet causes branches to bend and break off, and if there are power lines under the trees, that's that. An inch of ice on each and every power line, each insulator, each cross-pole on the power poles, each coupling...power lines break off and power poles break in half.
The radio reported that a state of emergency has been declared in Western Kansas, Eastern Colorado, and parts of Nebraska. People can't get food. People can't get warm. Cows can't drink (water wells in the country have electric pumps. No electricity, no water!) and if they don't get the power on soon, they'll start dying.
Thankfully, we were in a house in town, so we had water. (I've been in a power outage in the country. We drank other drinks and went to the spring house for water to drink. But with no water pump, there was no flushing. Yes, that's right No flushing in the country houses.) We were in town, so even though it was cold in the bathroom (cold seat yikes!), we could flush. And drink water. But nobody bathed or showered. We didn't know how long the outage would last, so we conserved hot water. And when everyone doesn't-bathe, it's ok. We can all laugh at each other. And wear hats. Because it's cold anyway and we want to conserve body heat.
Monday morning you could see your breath inside the house. For real.
And The Dude and I left Monday. The Interstate was ok, especially as we drove east. But as we drove we saw many, many power lines down. I personally saw 5 power poles that had been broken in half (in half!). I saw power poles with the cross-trees down and lines on the ground. If the lines are along a highway, ok. The line crews can just drive up and fix it. But many of the lines we saw were in the middle of ranch fields or wheat fields or cornfields. What then?
Let me just say that the Motel 6 in St. Louis (with their light ironically turned off) was lovely, and I took the longest shower ever. And I had clean hair that looked better after I brushed it. We turned the heat way up and gently roasted while we had the TV on for no reason and showered luxuriously long. Aaaaah.
They still don't have power.
| By The Newest Worker | 02:16 PM
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