Saturday, November 3, 2012

oh how i miss my decadent american plumbing!!!

if you're reading this, it means that, four and a half days after losing our electricity during hurricane sandy, we still don't have power. we're ok. nearly everything is still DO-ABLE... it just takes a lot more time and effort... and sometimes a trip to a location which has electricity. we're fortunate and grateful to have several relatives and friends within a half hour's drive to whom we can turn for showers, cooking privileges, and the charging of electronics. oh, and most of them still have halloween candy left, too!  BONUS!!! :) a few things i am particularly impressed by or happy about right now:

1. the guys at home depot
will help you improvise just about ANYTHING! in my case, we "converted" one of their empty 5-gallon water cooler refills into a transportation device for jeff to bring home water from work each night. it sounds ridiculous, but this has improved our current "lifestyle" HUGELY!!!!

2. manischewitz memorial candles
i bought a flat of these when every local store was sold out of all other unscented candles and we were down to my last few xmas pillars! but seriously, for $1.20 each they are the slowest, cleanest, steadiest-burning candles i've ever had... and they come in their own little glass jars! 


3. foodstuffs to which you "just add boiling water"
ordinarily these are things we avoid, but the lure of a hot meal we can prepare by manually lighting our gas stove and heating the kettle is awesome... and afterwards you throw the dishes away! (because if you have to boil water to wash and rinse every single dish, this turns into a huge consideration!) 


4. red lights
ok, yeah, historically these have not been my favorites, either, but the next time you are sitting at a busy intersection, imagine trying to cross it WITHOUT a pre-agreed set of rules for the flow of traffic.  most of our local roads are now back to having traffic signals, and we are VERY pleased and relieved about that!

5. charging stations
many of the local firehalls and community centers with generators have set up as places one can go to plug in a phone, a laptop, a rechargeable flashlight. what a brilliant and truly helpful idea!


6. accurate battery life estimates
our new toshiba satellite laptop is aces for this... they predict 9 hours and by golly, they deliver, even if you spend part of that time watching a dvd! 
(i will now womanfully gloss-over the inadequacies of a certain fruit-named computer company in this department, by virtue of the fact that their vowel-phone has saved my life on multiple occasions this week. but still, guys, you're the biggest company in the world, you could make a battery last 24 hours, surely??!?!)


7. clean fridge 
ok, admittedly, at the moment, it's more of a warm unlighted cupboard, but it totally sparkles and shines in there!!! :) :) :) (and luckily, we were able to "re-locate"most of our food to my mom's house on day 2, so we didn't lose very much!)

8. emails from the nieces and nephew
yesterday i ALMOST deleted a message which began with a paragraph of random letters and symbols; as it turns out, this was (5yo) nephew matthew, asking if we had electricity yet! i know because his (10 yo) cousin riley supervised his typing adventure and then translated the results! all of the small fry and their families are well, and despite some storm damage are now fully equipped with all mod cons... but not yet back at school. to them, this was the BEST WEEK EVER!!! :) :) :)

hope *YOU* are well and safe and warm, darlings, and i will let you know when we are back to "normal"... assuming we actually recognize such a state when it returns!!!
xoxoxoxo
lauren

13 comments:

  1. It is good to know you are safe and still have a sense of humor. I so enjoyed this post. It is times like this that make us understand what is important. Hope you have your power back soon!

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  2. Good for you for maintaining your sense of humour at such a difficult time! Glad to hear that you are hanging in there!
    Hugs,
    Shanna

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  3. You are a trooper my friend...I cannot begin to imagine how tired you are....hang in there! Thanks for this post, it really makes you realize stuff that we so take for granted.

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  4. Love your observations. Here are my reactions to them (like you care):

    1. Some of those Hope Depot guys are kinda cute, too. BONUS.

    2. Those memorial candles burn for 24 hours on purpose. Good for you for thinking of them!

    3. Lucky you have a gas stove to manually light. I'll bet Ramen Noodles never tasted so good!

    4. WHY WHY WHY are people incapable of doing a 4-way stop? They can't even do them when it IS a 4-way stop, like with stop signs.

    5. I've seen pictures of charging stations all over the Interwebz. Do people leave their phones or stay with them? I'd be skeered of thievery.

    6. Still snickering over "fruit-named computer" and "vowel-phone". HA!

    7. Niiiice clean fridge. Since I almost never have food, I clean a shelf here and there. I rock the spot-cleaning life-style.

    8. Gotta love kids.

    I'm glad you guys are toughing it out. I hope things will be back to normal VERY soon!

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  5. so glad to hear you guys are faring well...we would be totally wrecked here without electricity for that long...cold temperatures and our furnaces need elecricity to work...electric stoves too...yikes...thank goodness that you have gas! We've been watching on the news and the mess there looks horrendous...thank goodness you don't need an elevator to get in and out of your place! I guess there is something good about living in the middle of the Canadian prairies after all...no hurricanes here!!! The worst we get is an odd tornado, freezing cold and a blizzard here and there...

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  6. Lauren, so glad you're ok! Been thinking about you.
    The clean frig would be a plus at my house but sure don't want all the rest you're having to do though.
    Hopefully you'll have power again and then just look back at all this as a bad dream!
    Lynn

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  7. oh, and at least dr. pepper tastes good at room temperature too! that is a bonus!

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  8. so glad you're safe and making the best of it - thanks for the giggles and the insight about what we take for granted and what's truly important - hope all improves soon

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  9. "Fruit-named computer" and "vowel phone", *snicker*

    Hang in there girl, I know it sucks but at least you can amuse us with you ultra-fun turn of phrases and your cheerful attitude in your update posts. [I dunno, does knowing we're smiling make it at all worthwhile???]

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  10. oh i'm sorry you're still without power. my nephew too. hang in there sweetie

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  11. Hang in there, Lauren! Hopefully you'll be back to normal soon!!

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  12. That has to be tough. But I love how you are making the best of it. We go camping with no power for a week at a time. But we do have a generator. We only power it up for important things like blow drying my hair. Hee Hee..

    Take care my friend. Big hugs...

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  13. The only part of this post that didn't make me smile is the thought that it's not over quite yet. Blech. Everything else? Best attitude ever :)

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