Gimme Shelter

This morning we again woke up to the beautiful sight of LOTS of snow and ice. The only problem was that we had no power. Norah came into our room to tell me that the bathroom light wasn't working. I was sure she was mistaken, and got up to go turn it on for her, still too asleep to notice how quiet the house was. I was surprised to discover that she was right, and that none of the lights in the house were working.

We discovered through phone calls to friends and family that rolling black outs were taking place throughout the city and that they were only supposed to last between 15-45 minutes. We had no idea when the power had actually gone out, so I called our energy provider to discover (courtesy of an automated message) that they knew of the problem and were trying to fix it.

We made the decision to a start a fire in the fire place, bundle up in lots of layers and blankets, and remain in the living room to conserve heat. The kids were bored and eager for some type of activity. They wanted to turn on a movie after spending time reading books and playing with their toys. They didn't understand us when we tried to explain that we just couldn't due to a lack of power. I'm pretty sure they were convinced we were holding out on them.

By the time noon rolled around, we were all starting to get really cold. Both kids refused to keep on all the layers I placed on them, making their hands and feet feel like ice cubes, and their noses turn red. Jeff and I were getting frustrated because we had no idea when the power would be back on, and felt we could not make an informed decision. If the power was due back on, it made no sense to take the kids out on the treacherous road trying to locate a place with power, on the other hand, we could wait for several hours or days in the cold.

When 2:30pm rolled around (we discovered the power had been off since 6:30am) there was ice on the inside of the windows and we were all VERY cold. Jeff's parents heard what was going on, so they called us and told us that they booked a room for us at a nearby hotel and we were to go there asap. We had not considered a hotel stay as a possibility since we kept expecting the heat to come back on, but quickly realized that we couldn't stay in the house overnight without power, and to try to drive on the icy roads at night was not a good idea. We threw our stuff together and headed out, incredibly grateful for their forward thinking and generosity.

We arrived at the hotel and upon entering our room (which was nice and warm) realized how cold we had truly been. The kids were excited to go on an adventure, while Jeff and I were relieved to have our family in a safe and warm environment for the evening. Dinner was served at the hotel, and after baths and story time, the kids crashed, exhausted from their day. Jeff and I weren't far behind!

It was an exhausting day. We later learned that a power fuse melted from the surge when the power company tried to turn the power back on in the morning. We know it came back on sometime later that evening and we could have toughed it out, but we were very grateful to be somewhere warm long before then.