It'll be 24 degrees tonight in the north woods of WI! YIKES. It's definitely time to move on south! Right in the middle of our "count down" of packing yesterday, we had a 15 hour power outage! Now remember up here in the wilderness that means no water, no light, no heat, no stove! And Monday was SO dark that even by the windows it was hard to read! The fireplace saved us from having to go to a motel! So..we were warm. But our furnace works on a blower so no furnace. Our well works with a pump..so no water. Yadda yadda yadda.
A pioneer I am not! We have a oil lamp and flashlights. But it was a revelation to have time weigh so heavily on us when we could not read or compute or watch TV or work outside in the 50 mph winds! In a forest, when the wind blows at 50 mph, you have Trouble with a capital T. Trees go down on power lines every time. We played canasta and visited and visited. We napped. We ate cold meat loaf sandwiches and lemonade and listened to the ice cream melt in the freezer.
Wise is the person who finds something worthwhile in every detour. We tried to keep our sense of humor...when we had lists of packing to do and it was too dark to see anything to pack! I even got so I read by oil lamp for awhile in the evening. How did Abraham Lincoln ever learn to read and write by firelight!!! And before all the light disappeared I did do my 10 silhouette paintings (I think I did...it was pretty dark to see them!). Donna Zagotta would be proud of me!!! The power resumed at 5 a.m. and so I have hot coffee and a cheerful heart again!!! Off to the shower. I have learned to appreciate small things again! Such is the reason for detours.
Oh, my, and here I am whining because you can "feel winter in the wind." It's 60F but windy and the sky already looks like snow. But I have heat and light and will stop whining now!
ReplyDeleteWe used to have blackouts all the time - I had a "grill meal" - ham, mac/cheese and baked beans in Pyrex dishes on the grill, low and slow - never fails! We don't get outages too much any more but we are heartier pioneers now anyway - besides oil lamps we have wood stove, generator, solar heat and gravity fed water - we can always drink and flush!!! My husband's laptop even has battery backup. But it is depressing when it's dark and you can't read. We modern folk are way too spoiled!
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