Week ending February 18, 2007: On Friday evening when the Baltimore Gas and Electric web site posted that of the original 100,000+ people who had lost power in Wednesday’s ice storm, only 1700 were still without power, we were one of the unlucky few. We lost power just after 7am on Valentine’s Day (Wed), and since whenever we lose power (which has been at least once per year of the 4 years we’ve lived in this house) it seems to take at least 48 hours for power to be restored to us, I decided to start packing and calling relatives to find a place for us to stay. At first our woodstove seemed to be doing an adequate job at heating the house, so I considered staying at home for a while. However, by 9am Alex had wet his jammies and got pee on the floor, and since we have well water and the pump runs on electricity, we couldn’t use any water to clean up the mess, I decided that getting out of the house as soon as possible was a good idea. My parents’ and Casey Mom’s house were both without electricity, so we headed over to my brother’s house. His daughter, Natalie, is 2 and the twins enjoy playing with her (and her toys) but after a few hours over there the novelty wore off and the kids started bickering. By the next morning the power was restored at Grammy Barb’s house, she was on vacation, so a little peace and quiet at her house sounded like a good idea. Each day we’d visit with Daddy for a little while and have dinner together. Then Daddy would head back to our house ever-colder house to load wood into the woodstove every hour and a half around the clock. Meanwhile, after dinner, the kids and I would make our way to our new abode and unload, unpack, set up beds, and run through our night time rituals alone. This meant that each night the kids got to bed an hour or 2 later than usual, and then each morning the kids would rise with the sun, an hour to 2 too early, as they realized that they were in a strange place. I did the best I could to maintain some constancy for the kids by bringing their sleeping bags so their beds would be the same each night, our laptop computer so they could listen to their favorite lullabies before bed, a soft-sided cooler of their favorite brands of yogurt and other snacks, 2 changes of clothes for us and them, and snow clothes so we could get out of the house now and again. All told there were 7 bags to load and unload each time, and by Friday morning we were all pretty tired and grumpy, but BGE said that they expected to have all power restored by Friday night, so we loaded all 7 bags back into the car in the expectation that we’d be sleeping at home that night. It didn’t happen. The power wasn’t restored by bedtime so we moved on to Grammy Carole’s house a 3rd late night and early morning. By the time power was restored at 3am Saturday morning, the temperature in our house was 40F and in the garage (where our very expensive water treatment system lives) was 33F, and the main pipe to the kitchen had frozen but not burst. Casey’s vigilance probably did only just help us to escape costly damages. I am proud of how well the kids did with the circumstances. At one point Chloe yelled “Mom! BLUE SKY!”. It truly is the little things that matter. On Saturday morning Chloe (out of the blue) said she’d like to go to an indoor swimming pool, so we took the kids to the brand new indoor water park in Glen Burnie and they had the time of their lives. We’re counting our blessings that we had relatives near by to stay with, that our home wasn’t damaged, that Casey could take a couple days off work, and that our toilet seats are now warmer than 40F!
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