Land of Living...

We have returned to the land of the living. As you've probably heard, MA was hit heavily by freezing rain. Although storms of this nature are quite common out here, this is the first I've been through since moving here three years ago. Of course, it had to occur when Chris was away as all bad things do! Thursday night was filled with a whole lot of security work and not much sleep, well at least for me. Claire and Harvest slept great! Trees were snapping throughout the night, sounding like gunshots. It was awful. Chris used to worry about the huge trees that align our house. I guess I took over that worry. Each seemed to stay intact and fairly upright, though. I thought we were in good shape. The electricity went out around 2:00 am, which sounded off our security system. Scary. I shut it off and went searching for candles and a lighter. I did manage some sleep for a couple more hours and later called in to work, thinking I'd be a few hours late. The main problem through my eyes was that I had put the pathfinder in the garage and couldn't open it without the electricity--at least by myself. Little did I know that trees had fallen everywhere and we wouldn't have electricity for 28+ hours. With the electricity went the heat. We didn't really notice that until around noon on Friday. The three of us just hung out in bed, reading books, playing with toys and watching the cars go by. We went outside and assessed the damage. Tree limbs were everywhere, but none appeared to hit our house. (I took some pictures, but can't post them until I can load them appropriately.) I managed to get the garage door open by myself (Yay! Woman Power!!), so we went for a drive--heated! Target was open, so we picked up a few things. It was like Armageddon. People were loading up like they would never have power again. It was amazing. We returned home and started making some dinner. I remember my Grandma Arlene lighting her gas stove with a match sometimes, so I gave it a try for myself. It worked great! We actually had a hot meal. The problem was that it became dark soon after the food was ready. Claire doesn't do well eating in light, so darkness was a whole new level of not eating. To make matters worse, she wanted to walk, but in doing so, kept bumping into things which lead to crying. It was torture for us both. The temp in our house was down to 56 degrees. I decided to pack up and find a hotel with temps expected to reach the 20's during the night. We started to drive to base, only to have Chris call and say that they were booked. I had reached my breaking point. I started to cry. It was awful. I just didn't know what I was going to do with Claire and our dog for days without heat. I kept driving and Chris kept calling. He found us a room in Burlington that would take pets. Thank you, Jesus! We enjoyed a nice warm bed, cable tv, and pizza. Saturday morning, we headed back home to check on the pipes as Chris was nervous the pipes in the floor for our radiant heat would freeze. Low and behold, I flipped the light switch and the lights turned on!! Amen! It was 49 degrees inside, but definitely a step forward. I quickly left and went back to the hotel to collect our things and checkout. We returned to town, shopped, ate and wasted as much time as possible before returning to our cold house. Saturday involved alot of work as I had emptied the deep freeze, fridge and freezer upstairs. I had to put it all back, unpack, wash clothes, etc. It was busy, which helped us stay warm. Life has since returned to normal for the most part. We don't have cable, phone or internet and may not until Christmas. I am so happy to have heat! It was a long, emotionally draining experience, but I guess we survived and I proved that I can handle being a single parent in a crisis. Thank you God for answering my prayers!