![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soniaPortland 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-16 08:13 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2021-02-17 07:49 pm (UTC)10 weeks of inadequate heat sounds miserable! And it sounds like you worked out ways to deal with it.