![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Blogging by Candlelight
Feb. 14th, 2008 08:54 amThe Great Ice Storm of 2008 is all over. Not nearly as bad (here, anyway) as it could have been. Kinda pretty... all melted and gone now.
We lost power around 6:00 last night, just as I was finishing washing the dishes and we were trying to decide what to have for dinner. It's amazing how absolutely dark (not quiet, yet) it gets when we lose electricity... Candles and our one oil lamp were quickly deployed, so we weren't running into walls, computers shut down (yay for UPSes), and, most importantly, the internet router was plugged into J's UPS. Yes, that's right. The power was out, and we had internet access for as long as the laptop batteries held up. I married a geeeeek... :)
The decision was made to head up the road to Applebees for dinner, and a quick phone call confirmed that they did in fact have power and food. Power came back on very briefly just before we left, leaving was debated, and decided for certain when the apartment again was plunged into darkness. I'm not up for starting to cook something and having to finish it on the grill outside, in the cold and wet and ice, when the stove suddenly stops working. We sat at the bar, heard stories of "eyup, we've been without power since about 5:00", and had a wonderful dinner.
So strange driving through a dark town. The houses were all still there, but lit from within only by candles, or oil lamps, so the glow was not nearly as glaring in the night. Roads lit by streetlights were dark, our headlights giving only a hint of what lay beyond. Very peaceful, really.
Returned home to a still dark apartment. Laptop batteries were dead, UPS still beeping in the basement, which was then shut off. Lamps and candles relit, along with the little portable radio (courtesy of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anna_mickel and General Dynamics).
It was wonderful, snuggled on the couch under quilts, in a candle- and lamp-lit room, with no electrical noise, and no lights outside to distract. J found some news radio station, which puts me to sleep whenever he listens to it, but it was OK last night.
The power came back on around 9:30 with a jarring blast of light (as we'd left the lamp on) and a louder-than-expected hum when the fridge kicked back on. I nearly hit the ceiling. From silence back to modernity in the blink of an eye. Cranky now. Turned light off, left radio on, returned to pretending we didn't have power, the room lit only by soft flames.
It was all nice because I knew it would be over soon. I knew the crews would get the power back on within the day, at the latest, since we are so close to the center of town. There was hardly a quarter inch of ice on things, and the sky had cleared. We could see stars overhead last night, more than usual, actually, since the streetlights were gone.
Still no power at work. S called this morning; they hadn't plowed, so I probably wouldn't have been able to get in anyway, but it was all dark and very cold. Day off for me! Now I'm glad I actually got some work done yesterday...
We lost power around 6:00 last night, just as I was finishing washing the dishes and we were trying to decide what to have for dinner. It's amazing how absolutely dark (not quiet, yet) it gets when we lose electricity... Candles and our one oil lamp were quickly deployed, so we weren't running into walls, computers shut down (yay for UPSes), and, most importantly, the internet router was plugged into J's UPS. Yes, that's right. The power was out, and we had internet access for as long as the laptop batteries held up. I married a geeeeek... :)
The decision was made to head up the road to Applebees for dinner, and a quick phone call confirmed that they did in fact have power and food. Power came back on very briefly just before we left, leaving was debated, and decided for certain when the apartment again was plunged into darkness. I'm not up for starting to cook something and having to finish it on the grill outside, in the cold and wet and ice, when the stove suddenly stops working. We sat at the bar, heard stories of "eyup, we've been without power since about 5:00", and had a wonderful dinner.
So strange driving through a dark town. The houses were all still there, but lit from within only by candles, or oil lamps, so the glow was not nearly as glaring in the night. Roads lit by streetlights were dark, our headlights giving only a hint of what lay beyond. Very peaceful, really.
Returned home to a still dark apartment. Laptop batteries were dead, UPS still beeping in the basement, which was then shut off. Lamps and candles relit, along with the little portable radio (courtesy of
anna_mickel and General Dynamics).It was wonderful, snuggled on the couch under quilts, in a candle- and lamp-lit room, with no electrical noise, and no lights outside to distract. J found some news radio station, which puts me to sleep whenever he listens to it, but it was OK last night.
The power came back on around 9:30 with a jarring blast of light (as we'd left the lamp on) and a louder-than-expected hum when the fridge kicked back on. I nearly hit the ceiling. From silence back to modernity in the blink of an eye. Cranky now. Turned light off, left radio on, returned to pretending we didn't have power, the room lit only by soft flames.
It was all nice because I knew it would be over soon. I knew the crews would get the power back on within the day, at the latest, since we are so close to the center of town. There was hardly a quarter inch of ice on things, and the sky had cleared. We could see stars overhead last night, more than usual, actually, since the streetlights were gone.
Still no power at work. S called this morning; they hadn't plowed, so I probably wouldn't have been able to get in anyway, but it was all dark and very cold. Day off for me! Now I'm glad I actually got some work done yesterday...
