Cold and dark...

[derekl_1963]

I just realized I've been updating on Facebook, but not here - so here's a rough chronology of the last 36 odd hours...

Mon, Brenda only worked a half day as the conditions worsened. While we were cooking dinner, the power started blinking so we moved the generator from the garage to the front porch. Of course, after that - no more blinks. Despite the rising wind, we thought we had it made...

Famous last words.

A little before 9PM, without warning, *wham* - and we were dark. I'd preheated the house so we had a little margin... But by 1.30 AM the temperature inside had dropped to near 60 (too cold for little Caramel), so we fired up the generator, rigged extension cords to the fish tanks and to a heater in the bedroom and moved Caramel upstairs and Brenda crashed.

I sat up a little while longer, I'd strained my back hauling the generator and trying to get it started and was in considerable pain. (Hint: check the manual - once I pulled the cord with right technique it started on the second pull.) I didn't take one of my make-it-stop pills as they can leave me dopey for hours, which didn't seem smart. Finally, sometime around 3AM I managed to sleep.

My alarm went off at 6AM so I could get up and check the generator and the house. The moonlight was absolutely awesome... Back to bed.

The alarm went off again at 9AM, and while I was pulling on my shoes to go outside and check the generator again - the lights came back on. After an hour with no blinks, and coffee and a warming house, we moved everything back to normal power and started looking for damage. Nothing froze in the house or garage (the house only got down to about 50), but the pool filtration system was/is frozen solid. No obvious cracks, but we won't really be able to tell until it thaws sometime Thurs (according to current weather guesses.) Other than that, the only other damage was running a staple into my finger while reading the generator manual.

Finally around noon, I took a make-it-stop pill and crashed for a few hours. I woke up still sore, but with the pain gone.

Spent the rest of the day just piddling around, doing a little housecleaning, and watching TV. I'm still a little dopey, so it's off to bed soon for me.