And the refrigerators out and the heaters out and the well pumps out and the waterfall in the koi pond went silent."Did you see that?" questioned my wife at 2:30 am on 2/2/2011. She should have already known the answer since she had to wake me up to ask the question. "No," I said, "What was it?"
It looked like a Fourth of July display in the front of the house. A tree limb just fell from the weight of the ice and crashed through the power lines. We had just experienced a terrible ice storm that made its way across the country. The news said it affected one million people, taking out numerous trees and power lines. As I lay there for the next few hours, I thought about a few things: Is the basement filling up with water since the sump pump is now rendered useless? Is the propane heater in the woodshop still heating our equipment which can't go below freezing or we will have a major problem?
It's still dark and the freezing rain is pelting the roof, but it must be morning because the rooster is crowing. I lay there with a thought... it doesn't matter to the dogs or the chickens or the squirrels eating out of the bird feeder that the electricity is out... it only matters to us.
Knowing the inconvenience an electric outage causes, I anticipate the next few hours with my wife. She gets out of bed and hits every light switch in the house like one of the dozens we have will magicaly illuminate a light bulb without any electricity! She asks me to put the news on so we can see whats happening with the weather. All of this leads me to believe she just doesn't get it. She doesn't realize that getting ready for work today is going to be a little different from other days. No shower, no blow dryer, NO COFFEE, no oatmeal for breakfast. She now informs me that she is going to my mothers to get ready for work.
At this point I realize the power could be out for hours and I have to get the house heated, so I go out to the wood pile to get some kindling. I decide to light the fire place in the dinning room because it is centrally located in the house and should heat the kitchen and the second bath. As I get a flame going in a fireplace that has been around for over two hundred years it gets me thinking of how it was when this house was first built.
The house is quiet and dark except for a few candles my wife lit and the glow of the fire. I pull up a chair, grab a book I have been trying to finish and I start a journey of days gone by. As I sit there reading, the dogs take there place in front of the hearth, the only heat in the house. It's still early and the sounds of the modern world have not started because of the ice on the roads. No lights, no cars, no phones ringing, no glare from our computer screens. At this point I truly feel like this is how it was back in the 1800's. I read for at least an hour before my wife comes in and breaks the calming silence thats now fills the house. She laughs at the site of me sitting in front of the fire reading the morning away, but after all there is nothing I can get done in this weather. She grabs her bags and heads off to work. The dogs settle in once again and I get lost in the crackling sound of the fire and the words of a good book. I must have been sitting there for at least two hours before I hear the sound of a few large utility trucks out on the road and I know now that my peaceful time in the past is coming to an end.
The electric company trucks are in front of the house ready to fix the problem and to bring my neighborhood back into the present. I try to get back into my book, but the dogs start running from door to window barking because they hear the voices of the workmen out front. It takes them about an hour to fix the problem, all the while my dogs are barking. Then it all comes to an end as I hear the heater heave its first big breath, then the compressor on the refrigerator starts to hum and the computers start beeping and grinding as the lights on the tower begin blinking. Well, its over and I feel like I just traveled through time. As I walk around the house blowing out the candles I am thankful to have experienced our house as it must have been in days gone by.
