DAY THREE
-Wednesday-
Today is the day that I started writing about our incredible journey into pioneer living. I thought about my blog this morning and how I know you are all wondering “Where has she been?” so I decided in the spirit of that pioneer living to write out WITH PAPER AND PEN my blog posts. Now that I’ve caught you up with the first of the week…
My hand is sore, my eyes are hurting from trying to see in nothing but candle light, I am cold, cold, cold. To start out this morning was the 24 hour mark of no electricity. I’m not exactly missing the television (yet) as much as I’m wishing I could get some news. I’ve been relying on my MP3 player for school closings and the weather forecast, but the battery is just about gone on that. The school does use a great service called One Call Now where you get a phone call with a pre-recorded message about school closings or other school related business.
I know I’ve referred to what we are doing as “pioneer living” jokingly, but we are basically living in only one room of our house, using our fireplace for all our heat, and only using candles for light. The toilet seat is cold enough that it might as well be in an outhouse!
DAY FOUR
-Thursday-
So this is going to end up reading like a journal entry pretty soon but I guess that is kind of what a blog is for, right? This morning was 48 hours without electricity. I can’t recall ever having gone this long without power before. What I’m hearing from the outside world is that there are hundreds of though sands of Kentuckians in our same situation At least I know I’m not alone. After the husband got off work yesterday, he phoned all Wal-Mart locations in our area (there are 3), the Lowe’s, the Home Depot, and even the Tractor Supply Company and none of them had a kerosene heater or generator. Completely sold out. However, the lady who answered the phone at the TSC said they were getting a truck loaded with heaters and generators and they would be opening at 7AM this morning. She said it’ll be first come first served basis. The awesome husband was up at 5AM to get the fire stoked up, re-supply the wood inside and out the door so he could be at least close to the front of the line. I’m thinking with our luck he’ll get a heater, but everyone will be out of kerosene! I miss my internet, but at this point I just want some heat and a nice hot shower! Upon returning from the store, Chris said that the "loaded" truck had 6 kerosene heaters and 25 generators. He was the 3rd person in the line of 14 when the doors opened at 7AM. Luck shined on us today.
DAY FIVE
-Friday-
When I woke up this morning to the sight of sunlight, I was more than excited. Finally a little something that resembles normalcy. Having a little sunshine doesn’t make the day feel so gloomy. Plus there are extra benefits like opening up the blinds and letting the heat from the sun warm the house up a bit. And those same rays are melting all that ice on the trees and power lines. At this point though I’ve pretty much given up on getting power back before next week. Most things in the freezer and refrigerator are going to have to be thrown away. Everything in the freezer has thawed already. We took essentials like milk, cheese, eggs, lunch meat, salad dressing, and things of that nature an put them in coolers to try to keep them cold. I checked this morning and we are just now going to need to replenish the ice in those coolers. That’s good news because they have stayed cold for two days.
The kids are going stir crazy and I can’t say that I blame them because I am too! I don’t expect them to have school much of next week. I can’t say that I’m that disappointed by that prospect. I had to wash my hair in my kitchen sink this afternoon. Washing off (barely) with a semi-warm wash cloth is not exactly leaving any of us with that so fresh and so clean feeling.
We decided to head to the grocery store as soon as Chris got home from work because I had something to do and we wanted to go and get the shopping done before hand. That was a really bad idea. There was an overabundance of people there. More people and it could have been a sardine can. There was plenty of milk, but most all the bread was gone. In the sporting goods department, basically nothing. But it took nearly forever to get out of there. We went to the gas station to get some kerosene and had to wait in line for a while. Then I remembered that I had forgotten to pick up a phone! (Remember we are using the built in recliner speaker phone) After a trip to the Dollar Store that yielded no results, we had to go back to Wal-Mart where I had to pay $25 for a stinkin’ corded phone. Jeez Louise. After all that crap, I forgot about the meeting and got home thirty minutes too late to even make it on time. Jeep Chick will kill me for this, I’m sure.
To be continued...
-Wednesday-
Today is the day that I started writing about our incredible journey into pioneer living. I thought about my blog this morning and how I know you are all wondering “Where has she been?” so I decided in the spirit of that pioneer living to write out WITH PAPER AND PEN my blog posts. Now that I’ve caught you up with the first of the week…
My hand is sore, my eyes are hurting from trying to see in nothing but candle light, I am cold, cold, cold. To start out this morning was the 24 hour mark of no electricity. I’m not exactly missing the television (yet) as much as I’m wishing I could get some news. I’ve been relying on my MP3 player for school closings and the weather forecast, but the battery is just about gone on that. The school does use a great service called One Call Now where you get a phone call with a pre-recorded message about school closings or other school related business.
I know I’ve referred to what we are doing as “pioneer living” jokingly, but we are basically living in only one room of our house, using our fireplace for all our heat, and only using candles for light. The toilet seat is cold enough that it might as well be in an outhouse!
DAY FOUR
-Thursday-
So this is going to end up reading like a journal entry pretty soon but I guess that is kind of what a blog is for, right? This morning was 48 hours without electricity. I can’t recall ever having gone this long without power before. What I’m hearing from the outside world is that there are hundreds of though sands of Kentuckians in our same situation At least I know I’m not alone. After the husband got off work yesterday, he phoned all Wal-Mart locations in our area (there are 3), the Lowe’s, the Home Depot, and even the Tractor Supply Company and none of them had a kerosene heater or generator. Completely sold out. However, the lady who answered the phone at the TSC said they were getting a truck loaded with heaters and generators and they would be opening at 7AM this morning. She said it’ll be first come first served basis. The awesome husband was up at 5AM to get the fire stoked up, re-supply the wood inside and out the door so he could be at least close to the front of the line. I’m thinking with our luck he’ll get a heater, but everyone will be out of kerosene! I miss my internet, but at this point I just want some heat and a nice hot shower! Upon returning from the store, Chris said that the "loaded" truck had 6 kerosene heaters and 25 generators. He was the 3rd person in the line of 14 when the doors opened at 7AM. Luck shined on us today.
DAY FIVE
-Friday-
When I woke up this morning to the sight of sunlight, I was more than excited. Finally a little something that resembles normalcy. Having a little sunshine doesn’t make the day feel so gloomy. Plus there are extra benefits like opening up the blinds and letting the heat from the sun warm the house up a bit. And those same rays are melting all that ice on the trees and power lines. At this point though I’ve pretty much given up on getting power back before next week. Most things in the freezer and refrigerator are going to have to be thrown away. Everything in the freezer has thawed already. We took essentials like milk, cheese, eggs, lunch meat, salad dressing, and things of that nature an put them in coolers to try to keep them cold. I checked this morning and we are just now going to need to replenish the ice in those coolers. That’s good news because they have stayed cold for two days.
The kids are going stir crazy and I can’t say that I blame them because I am too! I don’t expect them to have school much of next week. I can’t say that I’m that disappointed by that prospect. I had to wash my hair in my kitchen sink this afternoon. Washing off (barely) with a semi-warm wash cloth is not exactly leaving any of us with that so fresh and so clean feeling.
We decided to head to the grocery store as soon as Chris got home from work because I had something to do and we wanted to go and get the shopping done before hand. That was a really bad idea. There was an overabundance of people there. More people and it could have been a sardine can. There was plenty of milk, but most all the bread was gone. In the sporting goods department, basically nothing. But it took nearly forever to get out of there. We went to the gas station to get some kerosene and had to wait in line for a while. Then I remembered that I had forgotten to pick up a phone! (Remember we are using the built in recliner speaker phone) After a trip to the Dollar Store that yielded no results, we had to go back to Wal-Mart where I had to pay $25 for a stinkin’ corded phone. Jeez Louise. After all that crap, I forgot about the meeting and got home thirty minutes too late to even make it on time. Jeep Chick will kill me for this, I’m sure.
To be continued...
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