I ‘hate’ interesting days…
And Thursday was one of them…
Lost power (along with another 409 people) Thursday afternoon, took 2 hours to get it back on. Temps were ‘only’ high 90s, so it was not too bad.
But…
at 0147, a bright flash, the CPAP quit, and it got really dark… The transformer across the street gave up the ghost. I grabbed my flashlight and went out to check the breakers (again), and sure enough, three were popped. Reset them but still no joy.
Came back in to have an outage notice from the power company, with an estimate of 0400 for the power to be back. Well, I wasn’t going to get back to sleep, as trucks started showing up, warning lights flashing in the windows, beeping as they squirrelled around to get in position, then clanging and banging, and the whine of hydraulics as they went up and down.
A little after 0400, another ‘update’ from the power company, saying there were ‘problems’… oh joy… At least it was only in the mid-80s at that point.
The flashing lights continued but there wasn’t any clanging and banging, or the whine of hydraulics for a while, and about 0500, it all started back up again. Finally, at 0535 the lights flickered and came back on.
So I lay back down and tried to go back to sleep. Woke up at 0830 and that was it…
So I was a ‘tad’ grumpy all day, and I’m hoping I’m still asleep when you read this. But the bright side is, both instances got fixed rather quickly, and we didn’t lose anything in the fridge or the freezer. I know a lot of other folks haven’t been as lucky this year.
But I reserve the right to be a grumpy old man anyway… Phhhbbbbtttt!!!!
Reminds me of another power outage story:
Kansas City, Missouri, January 31, 2002 – a major ice storm hit. It’s documented here:
https://fox4kc.com/news/pictures-10-year-anniversary-of-epic-ice-storm/
Five days later we were still without power, and wondering when power would be restored, and carrying on while all bundled up starts to wear on you after a few days.
Then, we hear big diesel engines. I look out my back porch, and on the street behind us, I see that a power line crew has shown up to try to restore downed lines in our neighborhood. Hurrah!
I fired up the Coleman propane double-burner stove and got a kettle of water boiling, and my wife made a nice big pot of coffee.
With coffee ready, we put together:
– Coffee in disposable paper cups and drink carriers we’d saved
– Sugar + sweetener + creamer packets
– A nice big stack of Hershey’s bars
(Did I mention we’re a bit boy-scoutish in our preparations?)
I walked all that out to the power-line crew. They were kinda blown away by this. After a discussion with the foreman, I learned that most people just complain to the crews wondering why it took them so long to get there.
The foreman called the whole crew over, even the guy who had just gotten up to the lines in the bucket (who complained about having just gotten up there, but he came down) and everyone got coffee and chocolate, and the looks of joy and gratitude on their faces as they just stood there holding the hot coffee in their cold hands. I’ll never forget it. 🙂
I highly recommend performing this act of kindness if you ever get the opportunity. It is very rewarding, both for the workers that show up to help, and for yourself.