Cold

[sonia]

Portland had a big winter storm, snow, ice, wind, the works. I said cheerfully that the only good thing about the pandemic is that I'm all supplied to shelter at home from a storm, and all my events are online anyway. It's all good, as long as I have power and internet.

Well. After hours of freezing rain, the tree branches got weighted down with ice, and the wind continued to blow them around.

I was at an online dance event last night, and the power went out dramatically with sparks from down the street. I figured it was going to be days before it came back, with all the other outages I was hearing about.

The icy snow reflected enough ambient light into my house to walk around and even read large print. I gathered up the pile of newsletters and magazines I haven't been getting to, a flashlight, and an extra blanket, and settled in to read. To my surprise, after an hour or so I saw the lights of a fire truck through the curtain. I guess they take sparks seriously!

I knew the power was back because I heard the furnace fire up. It's gas, but has electric ignition. It had gotten down to 62F in the house. Much relieved, I microwaved my rice bags to take to bed with me as usual.

I had already texted everyone I was meeting with today online, so I texted them again to tell them the power was back and I could meet with them after all.

This morning, the power was gone again, and I got succeeding emails from the power company with resolution times further and further into the next day. I texted everyone again and canceled.

I haven't had the power out when it's cold like this before. I had to think everything through. The hot water heater was still full of hot water, so I had a lovely warming shower. I put on lots of layers, including a hat, scarf, and coat. I lit the gas stove from a candle and made tea and heated food for breakfast. I opened the fridge once, and only took out things that could stay out in the cooling house without spoiling right away.

I got out the yaktrax and the snow boots and shoveled my way to the garage, which I tried to open with the manual release so I could keep food cold in there. Even though I cleared the snow and ice away, and even found the right key, I couldn't get it open. Good thing I had already brought the snow shovel in the day before!

As the temperature rose above freezing, ice cascaded from the coated branches all around. Some branches had broken and fallen during the night, too. I went for a walk, a little nervously under the trees, but nothing big fell on me.

When I got home, I settled in the spare bed because the sun was coming in to that room, and continued going through my pile of newsletters. After a while I got cold. Chilled. And sleepy. I hunkered down under the covers for a while. I tried to talk myself through it. If you're indoors you don't get cold enough to die, right? I thought about getting up and making more tea.

Just about the time I was mobilizing, I heard the furnace kick in, much sooner than I would have guessed. Yay!!! It had gotten down to 52F degrees in the house, not much warmer than outside at that point.

I was genuinely scared of being so cold. I am so tired of going through unfamiliar scary things alone. This reminded me of the wildfire smoke this past fall. Is this climate change, increasing disasters increasingly often? I am not a fan.

Comments

[rosefox]

Yikes, I'm glad you're okay!

[sonia]

Thanks! I'm guessing I wasn't in any actual danger, but I didn't like it.

[minoanmiss]

Goodness, it was a very dislikeable situation!

*sends all the warm hugs*

ETA if this goes on, I found a post with some sensible-sounding suggestions. Do you have wide masking tape? Are there any rooms you can shut and not go into until it thaws again?

https://jaune-chat.tumblr.com/post/643292213774843904

[sonia]

Thanks for the warm hugs, and the link!

The advice is interesting. Some of those things I've done just to make the house livable in the winters (reduce drafts, etc.). This, though: "Avoid going into rooms with an outside wall." There is literally nowhere in my house that doesn't have an outside wall, and the bedroom is right under the roof for extra exposure. I guess Texas houses are bigger and more spread out! I did hole up in a smaller room in hopes that my body heat would help a bit. And the cat did stick close for mutual warming.

I'm having serious thoughts about adding solar power. It wouldn't take much juice to keep the furnace thermostat running.

[amethyst73]

I'm glad you came through it okay!

With California, at any rate, if you have solar panels your power is still prone to outages - you're still on the grid. If you have a house battery to *store* the solar power, then you'd be okay in an outage. Not sure what Oregon's rules are.

[sonia]

Oh! I definitely have to do more research. Meanwhile I have ordered a camping solar panel from REI so at least I have a chance of being able to charge my phone if needed. This might not come up again for another 10 years - or then again it might.

[suncat]

Relieved you're okay, that you're figuring it out. Here in Minnesota (where it's been consistently below zero Fahrenheit for some days now), we're prepared. We don't like it, but we're prepared. So many places hit right now are *not* prepared.

Haven't lost power this time, but we did one year during a January ice storm. Maybe two days without power?

[sonia]

Thanks!

I would think for one thing your houses are insulated better. This house loses heat so fast. Do you have links or suggestions for preparing better?

[suncat]

I hadn't even thought about the house insulation factor. I suspect you're correct.

Is sidewalk salt a thing in your area? For de-icing the sidewalks after any snow is removed. It's not very effective if the temperature drops into the single digits or below.

I tried to find the page of cold weather safety tips at our city's website and of course I couldn't locate it today. Let's see what all I can remember.

I don't know what kind of furnace you have, aside from it being gas. If it takes filters, make sure those are changed often, especially when there are pets. We change ours monthly. (Funny story -- the technician was in for the annual furnace inspection and tune-up. Numa the cat doesn't care for strangers so made himself scarce. When the tech had the furnace cabinet open for routine cleaning he said, "cleaned out the normal dust. And there was ... hair?" I confirmed that there a cat lives here.)

To guard against frozen water pipes during the coldest weather,
- Keep interior temperatures above 50°.
- If an exterior tap (like for a garden hose) has an interior shut-off valve, close it.
- Leave cabinet doors under sinks open, so the warmer air can circulate around the pipes.
- In the basement, let a water tap run a tiny stream of cold water.

The issues with frozen water pipes generally arise during extended cold periods, temps in the teens and below. I'm hoping that even with this recent storm, your climate doesn't normally do this?

[sonia]

Thanks! I have a bag of non-clumping kitty litter for traction if needed. People aren't as good about clearing sidewalks around here. I usually do shovel mine, but I left it this time because snow + ice is better than a skim of black ice as it thaws and refreezes.

I have someone coming to look at the furnace today because it was not running reliably even before all this. I think I have a change-once-a-year type filter, but I will ask about that.

Yeah, it only stayed below freezing a couple of days, and I don't think it got into the teens at all. Who knows in the future, though, as weather patterns continue to destabilize. I put covers on my outside hose bibs, but didn't (think to) worry about the inside pipes. I also forgot to cover my big daphne plant, which is full of buds. I hope it makes it through!

[adrian_turtle]

Unfortunately, it CAN get dangerously cold indoors. Vulnerable people die of hypothermia when the temperature is 40-50 degrees F, especially if their clothes are wet and they're in contact with the ground. On the other hand, people live in snow caves.

I'd suggest you get some chemical warming packs before the next storm. (I mean those stick-on things they sell for pain relief, or hand-warmers) to use if the power is out and you can't microwave your heating pads.

Consider insulated curtains, at least for one room. (You can close them in the sunniest part of the day, in summer, to reduce the need for a/c.) You can also hang a blanket over the curtain rod, though for a one-person household I'm not sure it helps more than just putting the extra blanket on the bed.

It helps to wear a hat in bed. In dire circumstances, I will even wear socks in bed. *grump*

This is probably more relevant for cold climates, but some people use a down comforter in winter, and bring out the summer bed-coverings for additional warmth in this kind of emergency. It will be warmest if you put the down comforter on top. If you pile the extra covers on top, they will squish down the feathers and make them less insulating.

[adrian_turtle]

so I had a lovely warming shower.

This is not always a net win. The building I lived in 1990-1992 had the bathroom in an uninsulated corner, and it was often just too cold for me to be wet and naked there. Even with hot water, showering made me a lot colder. Because I was dealing with inadequate heat for 10 weeks or so, I usually went down the hill to shower at the gym. If it had just been a few days of being without heat, I might have been warmer to just not shower. And when the snow was too deep to get down the hill, I didn't. I got pretty good at changing my long underwear FAST.

[sonia]

That's a good point. It's a really small bathroom (1920's building) with only a relatively short side on an outside wall, with a window of course, and I like really HOT showers that raise my core body temperature as well as the ambient temperature in the room. I wouldn't have tried it with lukewarm water because I think then it would have been a net loss, like you say.

10 weeks of inadequate heat sounds miserable! And it sounds like you worked out ways to deal with it.

[silveradept]

I have a feeling this is climate change, and that many more people are going to find themselves preparing for things that were unimaginable not that long ago. We are glad you are okay, though.

[sonia]

Thank you! Yeah, I think the ride gets bumpier from here. I keep reminding myself there are respites, like a terribly cold winter and hot summer followed by several years of more temperate seasons.