Ol' Man Winter 2009

Ol' Man Winter dropped a bunch of ice, snow, ice, and more snow and ice on us this week. The result of that left tens of thousands without power and heat for some time. Some are still without power. Our power went out around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Neither Shawn nor I went to work that day. We both stayed inside (well except for a few minutes when I went outside to play around) and bundled up to try to keep warm. As night fell, so did the temperatures outside and inside the house. Shawn and I tried to call every hotel in the phone book, but they were all booked by others seeking shelter and warmth. We did manage to find one hotel that would have a room available Thursday evening so we booked that through Sunday. No one knew when the power would be on, so we booked it for a few days. We could always cancel the room for the days we wouldn't need it and hoped that we wouldn't need to book it for a few more days. Wednesday night we removed everything out of the freezer/refrigerator and placed it in a coolers either outside in the snow or in the garage. That night we bundled up in layers and put lots of extra blankets on the bed and went to sleep. Or at least try to sleep. It was hard because I was cold and worried about the cats and the dog. We knew we were taking the dog with us to the hotel, but we couldn't take the cats. We made sure they had lots of food and water and left the extra blankets on the bed for them to get under.


Thursday morning I got up and got ready for work. Because we have a gas water heater, we were able to have hot water to shower with, just no electricity to dry my hair. I had some nice, crazed hair that day for work. But I didn't care. At least I was able to get to work and warm up. Shawn and I packed our suitcases and things and loaded them in the car. Shawn didn't work that day but ran some errands. After work I went to check into the hotel and Shawn went home to get the puppy and a few more things we needed from the house. I checked into the hotel and got to the room. I took a few pictures of the room and then unpacked everything and put it away. At home, Shawn loaded the car and then stopped at the neighbors to give them our phone number so they could call us when the electricity came back on. As soon as he wrote the number down, he said the electricity came back on. That's our luck! Shawn called me at the hotel to tell me. I was like you are kidding right? I JUST put everything away. We decided to go ahead and stay the night in the hotel just to be on the safe side. Cause some people that have had power all along, were starting to loose power now. I called Beth and Tommy to let them know that we had power, because they didn't, and told them they could stay at the house with us.


So we are all nice and toasty in the house here. Shawn, me, Hershey, Molly and Clifford, Tommy, Beth, Rebel and Wiley. It's a house full, but it's been fun.


Here are a few pictures of the week's events...