Powerless

We had a doozy of a storm over the weekend. First freezing rain, then horizontal snow, followed by more freezing rain and snow until the tree branches hung down to the ground with the weight of ice, and so did the transmission lines. Around 2:30 on Saturday afternoon we lost power. Often losing power is a delight: the candles, the quiet, the neighbors talking to each other because there's nothing else to do. It was that way all afternoon and through the evening, when we had cheese, crackers, fruit and wine for dinner because our stove is electric. It was that way through the night as the temperature dropped and we slept cozily under down comforters.

Come Sunday morning, the whole adventure began to lose its charm. We have a gas furnace, but the blower is electric, so the temp had dropped to below 55 degrees. We ate breakfast with a neighbor who has a gas range and spent a large part of the day shoveling to keep warm. The major crisis of the morning was averted when we discovered that we could use our hand-cranked nut grinder to grind coffee beans. The fire station and city hall were running off the same generator, but the rest of us fell back on fireplaces, flashlights, candles, and one guy's crank-powered TV. The estimates were anywhere from 24 hours to a week without power, with temperatures in the 20s and 30s (that's hovering around zero to you celsius types).

The grocery store in town was closed, but we heard that the one on the near side of Cedar Rapids was running on generators, so we piled in the AWD Subaru and headed out. The store was full of farmer types who look like they don't come to town much, filling carts with huge water bottles and propane. We hatched a scheme to haul the Weber grill up onto the back porch, boil water on the Coleman stove, and rely on down sleeping bags and the gas water heater for warmth until our connection to the nuke plant could be restored. Luckily the juice came back a little after 5 on Sunday evening. I reckon we saved at least $10 on power, but we spent over $200 at the grocery store, so no net gain. It's good to be warm again!