Sunday, November 30, 2014

Electrified

We finally have power, as of about noon yesterday. It was out for 68 hours, and, in concert with the big snowstorm that caused the outage, it spoiled our travel plans for the holidays.

We made the best of it. We stayed home the first night, in the hope that the power would come back on during the night. When it didn’t we went into town in search of breakfast and found it at Dunkin’ Donuts, the only place in town serving food on the holiday. After breakfast and a look at the electric company’s Web site, we decided to take advantage of our timeshare in Wolfeboro (they had power; they usually have power when we don’t) and spend Thanksgiving someplace with heat, light, running water, and a working kitchen.

Karen prepared a lovely, if not traditional, meal of bacon-wrapped steak, wild rice, broccoli, and asparagus, and we splurged on a mousse cake for dessert. DVDs and video games kept us entertained until bedtime, and we were all able to get a good night’s sleep, more or less.

In the morning, I checked the electric company’s Web site. Seeing that our neighboring town had only 5% of their customers still out, I reasoned that they should have us up and running by late the same day, so we checked out of the room and headed to the library, then home.

The power didn’t come back up. Sigh. After another cold night at home, we went off the some local craft fairs, sitting down to lunch at one of them, and then back to the library, where we could charge phones and tablets and take advantage of their Internet connection. Finally, around noon, the power was back up and we went home. We had our little turkey breast and the baked stuffed clams we were supposed to take to New Jersey. We’ve been going through the food in the freezer and the refrigerator. Most of it seems to have survived.

In other adventures, Tom’s car broke down last week, with a charge light and no heat from the vents. We limped it almost halfway to the mechanic when it stopped running. He had to have it towed in. Fortunately, the problem turned out to be two broken belts, and not terribly expensive, so Tom is back on the road and not completely broke.

On the other hand, our washer/dryer stack is down for the count, and we’re replacing it as soon as the one we’re buying from Lowes can be delivered. This Thanksgiving we’re thankful for sales and employee discounts. Meanwhile, harkening back to my bachelor days, we’re haunting the local laundromat. At least I get to catch up on some of my reading.

And, finally, the snow did a number on the temporary garage where Karen’s trailer is kept. The trailer is okay, but I’m going to have to add some wooden support to the now bent metal frame of the shed, and keep a close eye on future storms. By next year the trailer will be done and we’ll have a deck overhead to protect it, so we just have to get through this Winter.

Which is normal for us, as it is for many here in northern New England: Winter is just what we do while waiting for Spring.

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