We had an ice storm, I think, it was in 2001. We live in a hollow with dense trees and I'll never forget the sounds from two night of trees breaking and crashing down. It sounded like shotguns going off all night. I estimated that we lost a tree about every 4 seconds, that I could hear. I told my wife that I honestly didn't think there would be a tree left after the second night. Very strange feeling......
Kind of funny.......
Our's happened on a Sunday night and we skipped church that morning. I was sleeping in. My wife came in about 8am and said, "Jeff, the power went out." Well, when our power goes it usually is back on in about an hour or so. So, I just told her "ok" and rolled over and went back to sleep. She came back in about an hour and said, "It's still off, the house is getting cold." Once again, I brushed it off, told her to be patient and went back to sleep. Well about 12 (I really was sleeping good) she came in and said, "I'm cold get the kerosene heater out." Of course I mumbled around and groned. The power came back on 8 days later!!!
Needless to say, I get reminded of my misjudgement a LOT!
We didn't have a generator but my neighbor did. He and I have known each other for years and we always help each other out- borrow things, etc. I trust him with my stuff and he trusts me with his. Anyway, we left his generator up in his big pole barn to suppress the noise and keep it out of the icy weather. It would run about 24 hours on two tanks of gas. My shift was the middle of the night, 3am, to go fill it up!
Man, it was hard to get out of that warm bed, suit up, track up to his building, 200 yards away, and gas that thing up! I couldn't wait to get back in to my warm bed. I didn't use his generator except to run my freezer to keep from losing all of my food. We put the rest of the groceries out in the snow and ice. We did setup everything one night and watch a movie.
I'll tell you, you realize how much you depend on electricity when you don't have it. We were blasted, literally, back in time. Every day's routine was to make sure we had heat (kerosene heater) and food (we keep canned food). I'll tell ya, though, we got to know almost all of our neighbors, helped each other and spent much more family time together; talking, playing board games, going to bed earlier, getting up earlier, worked harder with no distractions, the radio became our best friend, along with hurrican lamps, etc.
I hope your power comes back on........sounds like you're ready....
edit: the news reported during our ice storm that there is always a surge in new born babies, 9 months, after some similar to a power outage......better be careful!
