Hurricane Irene struck in August, leaving us powerless for four days. We have an all electric house which meant no refrigeration, lights, water, air conditioning, and flushing ability. But, it was bearable because temperatures were not their usual scorching highs. Mighty Marc filled toilet tanks with water from our pool, and we boiled bottled water for pasta, canned soups and tea on our outdoor grill. Food spoilage was minimal, because my resourceful husband repeatedly shoved ice bags into refrigerators and freezers. We frantically looked to buy a generator, but the smart people had already bought them.
Power returned on the fifth day. By day six thoughts of generators had flown from our heads.
The last week of October a quirk of nature occurred in the form of a snow storm. I awoke at 1:25 A.M. for one of my treks to the bathroom, and smashed into the corner of my dresser. Ouch! The nightlight, that always guides my way, was not lit – nor was my digital clock.
Oh no. Not again!
I woke up Mighty Marc. Something had to be done to keep our small Caique Parrot warm. We took Molly from her overindulgent three by five feet cage, relocated her to a smaller cage in front of our propane fire place, and covered it with two large beach towels. Molly is not used to having her cage covered so we anticipated some reaction in the morning.
We determined not to open our refrigerators or freezers throughout the duration of the outage, no matter how inconvenient. Then, we piled on extra blankets and went back to bed.
In the early morning I was awakened by a string of desperate hellos from Molly’s cage. The poor bird had no idea where she was. We kept her in front of the fireplace while we phoned–thank goodness for cell phones–the pet shop where we board her when we vacation. They had power and said they would take Molly.
A foot and a half of snow had blanketed northwest New Jersey, so Mighty Marc dressed in winter wools, dragged out his plow, and carved a path from the garage, up the hill, to the street.
Pumpkins on our front deck turned to mush. Mums on our lawn keeled over and snapped under the weight of snow. The left half of our beautiful, once perfectly symmetrical Magnolia tree, dropped to the ground. Two cherry trees uprooted and fell over (one landed on our deck), and another half dozen trees lost many huge branches. It was sad because we love our stately trees.
Our country road was closed to through traffic on both ends. Trees had fallen on power lines. To exit our street we had to circumvent dangling branches and wires. We held our breath and crossed our fingers each time we bypassed orange cones and raced through.
Life in the dark was not so romantic this time. We were freezing. Our fireplace helped, but not much. Our pool was closed, but our neighbor’s wasn’t. Mighty Marc lugged pails of green murky water up a hill to fill our toilet tanks. On one occasion I was preparing to sit when I spotted a floating, dead, pollywog. Suddenly a lively black insect skated across the water. I recognized it as the kind that had bitten me in my pool. No way was I going lower my behind. Mighty Marc came to my rescue, armed with a pasta strainer.
We drove around a lot; often aimlessly, saw two movies and ate out twice a day. As nighttime crept in we rounded up solar lights from our patio, bunched them into bouquets and placed them in vases. Wearing layers of clothing we played board games in the light of five small flashlights dangling from our diningroom chandelier. Candles in our shower stall served as a night light.
Personal hygiene was non-existent. I considered showering at my gym but I hadn’t been there in four months, so I didn’t have the courage to appear with a bar of soap and a towel. My hair no longer needed hair spray to stick in place, so I made an appointment with my hair dresser, to have it washed.
Two good things came from this experience: When we opened our freezers, after four and a half days, everything was frozen solid. And…we bought a generator, for next time.
I would not have survived as a pioneer. Without hot water, a curling iron and a microwave, life is hardly worth living.
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