My Week Without Power

Way back in 2006 a huge storm blew through St. Louis.  I was attending a PartyLite conference at the dome downtown and remember walking onto the concourse, hearing the tornado sirens and seeing the green sky through the window.  And the WIND.  We were three stories up and the debris was blowing past at eye level.

What I was witnessing, I found out later, was "straight line winds" not a tornado.  Trees and branches had dropped all over town and power was out.

There was little surprise driving home with so many of the street lights and signals out that my own power wouldn't be working.  And as with any power outage I pulled out the candles and hunkered down for the night.  My kids were with their dad that Thursday night and his power was also out.  In fact everyone's power was out.  When I arrived to work the next morning my office was up and running and the conversation centered on that weird storm the night before and how wide spread the outages were.  I returned home with my power still out.  That had officially been the longest I have ever gone without electricity.

This was at the end of July and the heat was increasing.  The kids returned home so we sought refuge at my mom's house for the evening - this wasn't a full scale blackout, merely large pockets of outages.  We went home the next day with promises to return if the heat was too much.

My power did not come back on until the following Friday.  EIGHT DAYS.

We never went back to my mom's house, but we did have to change our routine and we survived (obviously).

Let's be clear, I am not a prepared person.  I do not, and did not, have huge stores of supplies for doomsday circumstances.  Well, today I have what equates to a miniature grocery store in my basement, but it wouldn't have been helpful in this situation.

The first thing that came out were my candles.  Having been a PartyLite representative for five years I have plenty of wax on hand, even today.  After my traumatic experience of no power for EIGHT DAYS I will forever have candles at my disposal.  My tale of woe was woven into my candle demonstrations from then on out.  I had enough candlelight to be the most illuminated  house on the street - you could see us blocks away!  I rigged a three wick monstrosity next to the couch so I could comfortably read - seriously, it was bright enough.

I knew not to muck with the refrigerator.  Leave it closed, it would be fine for a day.  And it was.  As it became clear I was exceeding the 12 hour limit of safety I bought a bag of ice to cram into the freezer.  That saved me more time.  On my way home Saturday morning I bought two more bags of ice figuring I would continue tossing them into the fridge and freezer.  When I got home it was clear I would need a ton of ice for that procedure to work properly and knew I had to move everything into a smaller device.   I had two coolers that had served me well the previous year when I toted my spawn across the country for a ten day journey of travel, camping and sightseeing.  Milk and all of the perishables were carefully packed into the coolers covered with plenty of ice.

Every morning I would drive to the grocery store and buy two bags of ice.  The store almost walking distance from my house was impacted by the power outage so I had to drive a few miles away and back.  I would drain the excess water from the coolers and cram as much ice as would fit.  It was funny how this became my new routine, me the non-morning person running to the store.

Just about everything was stashed in Ziplock bags before hitting the cooler.  I rarely make specific brand recommendations but I've learned that nobody makes a zipper bag like Ziplock.  They seal completely and are not prone to pin holes along the seams.  Even items that don't look like they will take on water should still be put in plastic bags.  There's nothing worse that hotdog flavored butter.  And in this instance I wanted to keep the melted ice water as pristine as possible in case we had issues with water purity, rumors were already circulating.  In that burst of brilliance I made sure to clean out my coolers with bleach water before storing food in them.

My house was not completely electric.  We had gas to our stove and hot water heater.  While the electric spark on the stove was inoperable I could still use a match to light it.  I opted not to heat up the house any further by cooking on the stovetop other than to boil water or small food preparation.  Instead I lit up the grill in the backyard.  The kids gathered small branches since there were plenty after that storm and I didn't exhaust my charcoal supply.  We didn't have much to be rescued from the freezer and what was there was promptly cooked and eaten.

It's been a few years and my memory is crap, but I think maybe my kids spent time with other family members.  I don't remember incessant whining about boredom.  Detoxing from the TV was refreshing and I caught up on my reading.  I spent a lot of time sitting outdoors in the shade because the house was pretty freaking hot.  At night I slept with a wet towel to keep cool.  I now pay attention to window placement in houses.  This particular house was not built with airflow in mind.

Overall, it was not a completely negative experience.  I felt proud for being resourceful enough to rise to the challenge.  Little did I know that in six months I would have to repeat my resourcefulness for another extended power outage, this time during an ice storm.

My husband hates the potential harm from gas lines and fireplaces, but my experience has made both very necessary.  The fireplace was the only way to keep warm during the ice storm.  I had pet birds at the time so I crammed their cages as close to the fireplace as possible and draped heavy blankets over them.  This time I do remember the kids were not home as I recall sleeping on the couch in front of the fire.  Fortunately my power was back on in 48 hours.  I had already kicked into my previous routine of running to the grocery store for ice (kind of ironic with an ice storm, huh?) and cooking the contents of the freezer.

I think of these experiences as I hear of others facing long term outages.  It is possible for an unprepared person to survive.

If ever you were to give something valuable to a young adult moving out on their own let it be an emergency kit:
   • Candles
   • Lighters (more than one!)
   • Manual can opener
   • Ziplock bags
   • Cooler
   • Gallon of water
And if you were really generous, pack it with non-perishable food.

SUMMER!!!!!

How about some fruit salad???

Total happiness



So it's been miserable hot, right?  That means at some point God is going to go bowling and we get thunder (ever hear that one?  It sure does sound like we're under a bowling alley when a good storm starts to brew).  Sure enough we're under a thunderstorm warning and that always brings the possibility of tornadic activity.  And what does one do under such conditions???

GO OUTSIDE!!!!

No tornadoes yet, but I'm pretty sure Illinois is going to get hammered some time today.

Going Out For Ice Cream

I'm six days into BIRTHDAY MONTH where I am bound and determined to diligently post about celebrations and things that make me happy, but oh holy shit this is becoming a chore.  A list o'grievances is starting to build and my ranty self needs to spout off.  It is possible The Husband has learned when this tirade starts to build for he suggested the most wonderful of trips.

ICE CREAM

Oh how I love me some ice cream.  I don't care what time of year it is or even what time of day, ice cream soothes this bitch beast.  (heh, I actually think "bitch beast" might be most appropriate)

Anyway we were out running another errand and were smack dab between two different Dairy Queens - this one or that one, hurry up and decide the light is about to change.  Go to THAT one.  As I headed in THAT direction he reminded me there is third location, a smaller one that we always forget right here in the neighborhood, one we have never visited.  It's a tiny, old building with no drive-thru.  So we park the car and walk up to the window (no inside service either).  This is OLD SCHOOL.

And I order what I always get, a peanut buster parfait and The Husband gets his favorite, a banana split.  We are creatures of habit.

This is a typical summer evening, going out for ice cream.  And damn this makes me happy.  The List O'Grievances still exists, but maybe it can wait until Bitch And Moan August?  Because what else is there to do in August BUT bitch and moan?

In the meantime...
I scream
You scream
We all scream
For ICE CREAM!

Celebrating The Past

Day Three of BIRTHDAY MONTH!  You should be gathering up your favorite birthday pictures for a July 28th post - the day of my bigass birthday hop.

I've had this picture pulled for a few days, actually before I thought up the whole birthday thing for July.  It's one of my favorites, with my mom and grandpa walking back from a successful fishing trip.  Doesn't it remind you of The Andy Griffith Show?

For me this celebrates the simplicity of the past, of family, and of summer.  You can feel the sun beaming down of them and can picture a yummy picnic lunch waiting.  I'm sure it included lemonade (and I DOOOO love lemonade)



For more celebrations, head over to Mrs. 4444's place.  She has a cool new meme where we get to post our favorite post from the past couple of days.  Make sure you tell her how much you love that idea (I assume you will) so she will keep doing it.

Summer Thunderstorm

There is just nothing like a summer storm blowing into town. Here in the midwest they don't just bubble up out of nowhere, although sometimes it seems like it. No, the wind kicks up and the clouds gather. For several hours there are SIGNS that something in the atmosphere is brewing and it's just a matter of time before it breaks loose. These storms can bring hail and the much dreaded tornado, but those too have warning signs other than your television show being interrupted for the ninetieth time by a stoked forecaster predicting doom and gloom. Fortunately, last night's storm held no such sign, the forbidding green sky (and yes, the sky literally turns GREEN when tornadoes are likely). It was just a hot, volatile night, perfect for lightening and thunder.

There was one particular crack of lightening, I swear it hit something. It was loud and very bright. I ran outside to see if there was any smoke or sign of what was hit, but it wasn't likely I would see anything because it was somewhere in the distance. And then... the thunder. It was tremendous. And it rolled and rolled and rolled. You could just hear it tumbling through the massive clouds, on and on. So I waited for the next lightening strike. None of the ones after that big one was nearly as spectacular, but the thunder was vocal so I grabbed my camera and recorded it. There's nothing to see as it's dark outside, but turn up the volume. I kept recording until I could no longer hear the rumble in the distance, but that isn't evident on the video as it cannot pick up the subtle sound near the end.

The little clicking sounds are the camera trying to focus - ha IT DARK OUTSIDE YOU IDIOT. And yes, the birds were tweeting like mad. Mostly you hear robins. At the very very end is my son cracking up (literally. Don't you love teen boys with their cracky voice changes?)

Summer Thistle

Hello Summer!

Does anything epitomize summer better than the beach?  The blazing sun, the searing heat, the scorching sand?  Yes, yes, THAT is summer.  Sadly no such thing exists in St. Louis... well, we have the blazing sun, the searing heat, scorching asphalt AND insufferable humidity.  All we lack is a quick run into the roaring waves to cool off.  No we have to drive across several states to find any such relief (or stay inside).

Of course, the first time I took the kids to the beach it was the swan song of my little camera.  I figured the film was toast.  A little metal piece kept snagging the film and once I had to open the camera to get it to advance.  I went ahead and had it developed.  I was quite surprised that I had any photos whatsoever, but also, I managed some unique texture people work pretty hard to get Photoshop to achieve.

Vacation Planning

As I scroll through my stash'o'pictures I keep pausing on ones from past vacations.  And I wonder which ones I should pull or if I should wait.  Some would be multi-day posts.  Others would have you convinced I'm a raging alcoholic with raging alcoholic friends (that my daughter calls my friends "The Drunks" could be telling).

Where to start?

Where to begin?

Where to keep quiet?  <-  WHAT?

It's still too early to pull out these stories.  It needs to be the height of summer and stifling hot outside.  Not yet.

But here's a teaser