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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Not Having Power is Much More Unfortunate Than It Seems



As I stated on Monday, I lost power last Monday and did not get it back until Sunday afternoon. Let’s talk some more about that. And let me apologize that this post is kind of long and a bit rambly. I never thought I’d lose power for so long, so I wrote this and had to keep adding to it as I continued to not have power.

Monday was actually kind of fun and scary.  My neighbors and I hung out in our hallway and drank and ate pizza. It was like 72 degrees in my apartment. I was actually a little bit warm.


Tuesday was somewhat less fun, especially because I didn’t hear from Boyfriend.  The pizza place near me was running on a generator, so I did get a hot meal. 


No coffee though, so I had to drink a red bull.


Not good in the mornings

[Side note: Before anyone asks, my heat and hot water heater and stove are all electric, so I didn’t have anything warm. I also don’t own a grill or any kind of camping gear, so there was no way for me to make my own old fashioned coffee. Yes, I asked the pizza place if they had coffee. They told me to be grateful for the pizza. I was.]

I spent a lot of time in my car charging my cell phone. Not terribly exciting, but not awful. I lit a bunch of candles and hung out in the dark.


 Seriously, these are my candles:


It was getting a little chilly, but whatever. I like it cold and 64 wasn’t really that bad.


On Wednesday, I woke up and it was 57 degrees.


Luckily, I managed to have some hot water in my pipes. So I took a shower and went to work, where we had luxuries like electricity and coffee and internet.

I charged up all my shit, which was great. Boyfriend came over after work and we cuddled for about six hours. It was awesome.


In case you’re wondering, at that point Boyfriend offered to put me up in a hotel, if we could find one. The thing was, my utility company kept telling me that my estimated restoration time was soon (on Wed morning, it said 11 pm Wed.  Until later that night, when it switched to 11 pm Thursday….) I didn’t want to go through all the trouble if I was going to get power back shortly. He’s a very good Boyfriend.


Those are surprisingly effective.

Anyway, so I woke up on Thursday again with no power and it being 55 degrees.


That’s when it got really bad. I washed my hair in cold water and used candles to warm up.
  
I went to work again, where I found out more of my coworkers got their power back.


Apparently, if I’m cold, everyone should be.

It’s a really weird feeling, when you go to work and everything is normal with coffee and heat and internet, and you come home to a fucking post apocalyptic  nightmare.

Work: 

Home:




When it's cold and dark, you don't want to do anything. I pretty much sat in my futon, cuddling my candle.



The utility company’s website reported that I should have service restored by 11 pm that night. I went to bed, dreaming of electricity (And wine. Because come on. Wine.) 


BUT THEN. The next day (Friday morning) I remained powerless and the website now claimed it’d be restored 8 pm on Friday night.

It feels like you can see my breath.
The restoration time got pushed back to 11 pm. Boyfriend got us a hotel room Friday night, because he felt sorry for me and is the best Boyfriend in the entire world. 


Then I got notice that the estimated restoration time was 8 pm SATURDAY night.

It was pretty hard for me to leave the nice warm internet filled hotel. 


It's an elevator.
On Saturday, I shockingly did not get power. The utility company (EVIL BASTARDS) said I’d get it by 3 pm Sunday. I checked a little while later, and it got bumped to 11 pm Monday.


It was 52 degrees when I woke up Sunday morning. Suddenly, the days of it being 57 degrees didn't seem so bad. 



In the afternoon, the utility company updated my restore time back to 11 pm that night. 


Around 3 pm I came in from doing laundry at a friend's house and OMG THE LIGHTS WERE ON!!

So I turned on all the lights and the heat in my apartment. Then I texted everyone in the world. 

And then I put my bottle of pinot grigio in the fridge. 



What I learned from this saga is that it IS a big deal to lose power, I have to buy all kinds of candles and better flashlights and camping gear, and that I need to invent a battery operated coffee pot.


27 comments:

  1. If anyone can make being without power fun, it's you. At least you had running water. There's an upside. I hope you weren't one of those people waiting in line at the gas station starting fights with other American refuges (I don'e know what else to call them). You perfectly captured how much more exciting office life is when they are the only oasis with electricity.

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  2. Glad you survived. I don't know what I'd do without electricity. I mean, how are you supposed watch TV without electricity? Humans need at least five hours of television a day, it's biological law.

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  3. I had the exact same experience, same time frame, same everything... but no one put me up in a hotel. :(

    I feel your pain Gia.

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  4. I was by the shore, with a sick husband. We lost power on Sunday, and got it back the next Sunday morning. I was hysterical in front of one of the power company trucks when they finally pulled up in front of our house and take full credit for the restoration of power to my neighborhood.

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  5. Amazing how much we love going to work when there's no power at home... We didn't get ours back until around 10 PM yesterday (Tuesday). I woke up yesterday morning and it was 39 degrees inside the house.

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  6. I cannot imagine your pain....particularly the no coffee thing. I would have camped out at my local Tim Horton's. Although, I do feel the pressing need to go hug my fireplace, BBQ and -40 degrees sleeping bag. Living in Canada, the land of plugging your car in by the middle of November and ice storms; one must always be prepared.

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  7. I can't even imagine living without power for that long. You are one tough cookie. I would've been with a friend who had power or springing for a hotel as soon as that house went below 65.

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  8. Ugh. I would have never left that hotel. Glad your apocalypse is over. Ellen

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  9. I am suddenly motivated to start stocking up on things like lamps canned food and blankets and booze and shit, because YOU NEVER KNOW. Especially with the whole zombie apocalypse that's around the corner (according to the internet). So glad to hear that you (and the others on here that shared similar experiences) made it through okay.

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  10. Yeah, seriously. Wine is key. I actually found an entire box full of wine (not box o' wine, a box with bottles in it) that I apparently bought forever ago and forgot I had and it got pushed under the work bench in the garage. This was 2 days before Sandy. So I was muthafunking ready, yo. Then I didn't lose power. Meh. Didn't stop me from drinking the wine, though.

    Moral of the story: ALWAYS have plenty of wine.

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  11. I was out of electricity this summer during a storm for like 5 days- it was terrible (and miserably hot). But I waited in the longest line ever at Starbucks that was a couple miles away to get my coffee fix everyday. Thank goodness for that!

    However, I never ran out of wine :)

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  12. Ugh, I hate being cold! What torture to have the time keep getting pushed back like that

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  13. OMG Gia,,,I love your posts sooo much!!!
    Not just because they are so funny, BUT, because I learn such valuable lessons.
    Like as soon as my next student loan comes this month, to push to the top of necessary needs list....6 boxes of wine!!
    Great post,
    Nikki
    www.justanothercanadiangul.wordpress.com

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  14. My poor baby Gia. I can feel your suffering through the monitor. And I'll feel your joy when I open my pinot grigio the next time Elvis Aaron Schwarz visits.

    Love,
    Janie

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  15. I'm so glad you got your power back and I totally feel your pain. My neighborhood STILL does not have power back (hello day 10). I am lucky to have a generator (which we put in after the 8 day fucking freezing power outage last October) but my neighbors have moved in b/c HELLO their house is 40 degrees. It's seriously terrible. Your boyfriend is aweome!

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  16. But we are drinking a LOT of wine, just so you know.

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  17. Oh and did I mention it's SNOWING? I'm sure you know.

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  18. Holy crap, I don't think I could have done it! I get antsy when the power goes out for a couple of hours!

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  19. Wow, that really sucks! Glad your power is back on though and you have access to some chilled pinot. Because, you know, priorities. ;-)

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  20. That sucks it took so long to get your power back. I'm just glad you have such a trophy winning boyfriend. It's common in SA to lose power, and about 70% of the population live without. Many, many folk heat water and cook on a fire every day. Can you imagine? There's a lot more solar power, windmills and the like in use too. You're right, being prepared is the key. Go get yourself a camping stove and coffee pot, superstorms are here to stay apparently!

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  21. This sounds SO ANNOYING! Reminds me of the time the volcano erupted in iceland and all flights were cancelled. I was on holiday and needed to get home to hand in my final piece of uni work otherwise i wouldnt have graduated. For 5 days the tv kept reporting that things would be back to normal at 1pm that day, and then 11pm that day, and then 1pm the next day and so on.. glad you got it back eventually. and the 'fuck you' pic made me laugh, i would have had the exact same reaction xx

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  22. So glad you've got juice again! We went through this last January when the Seattle area had that awful ice storm. I would have opted for a hotel even with our 2 dogs if they hadn't kept saying we'd have power "soon". Jerks. Here's hoping the worst is over for us both as winter approaches. And I'd better go start my shopping list: 1. flashlight batteries 2. candles 3. WINE :D

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  23. It was 52 degrees in our house with a fireplace going. We had to keep the fire going 24/7 to ensure the girls didn't turn into popsicles during the night.
    My husband also has a head lamp and I teased him about it before this last power outage. Now I too have something I call "my precious".
    Happy to hear you are warm and with chilled wine again!

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  24. Ugh! So happy to hear your electricity is back on!

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  25. Yeah if that happened to me I'd just camp out on Campus and stay there forever until power returned at home.

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  26. It really is the cruelest joke for the utility company to dole out hope just to yank it out from under you time and time again.

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  27. OMG. 7 days without power. i dont know what i could have done if i were you. no power is one thing but no power and being cold is another.
    i'm just so happy that you have electricity again. yeah, a good back-up plan would be great.

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