Our family is in a stage of life where we receive service much more than we give. The last two days were just one more opportunity to take.
After writing my last post, I went to bed, and my husband worked on his dissertation. Sometime later in the night, he came to bed, bringing with him one small child. Why? Because her room, and ours, were about to get really cold. As my husband was shutting down the computer after finishing his work (for that night) at 2 am, everything went dark. We lost our power, just like our neighbors across the street. About two hours later it came on for about 45 minutes, then it was gone again... seemingly never to return.
So, as my husband went to work that morning, Kiddo and I ran errands. We returned for a nap in our house which had now cooled to mid-60s. After the naps we went to a friends for the afternoon. We got dinner, and returned to a house now in the high-50s, and dark (and you know all our flashlights are, yes, packed).
While I was pretty useless, my good husband called some people we know, and our good home teacher invited us to stay the night at his house, so at least we slept warm last night. Today my husband is back at school, and we ran more errands. And at 2 pm, we came by the house, and the power was back on! About an hour later the heaters finally started producing heat. Each degree we gain is a personal victory for me. Why are we staying in our still cold (but getting warmer) house? Because I'm tired of being gone. This is my home (for four more weeks) and I'm enjoying it.
My brother and sister-in-law were out of power for a week last year. I can't imagine how they survived. I guess it helped that the temperatures weren't freezing and it wasn't snowing the entire time. Still, that's a long time to live in the dark...
Two blessings I am never grateful enough for: 1- water that comes straight into my house, and still runs when the power is out, and 2- the amazing science behind the flipping of a switch, and the light that comes.
