Roughing It

Hey man how's the weather?  I know there are folks out there, maybe even my beloved Constant Readers, who've had it worse.  I heard this morning that Oklahoma temperatures have reached -20 degrees (yes there's an intentional minus in there!).  My brother in New Jersey told me the city has been piling snow on the side streets, and each storm brings the piles closer to his own personal street.  I know flights have been canceled and states of emergency have been declared.  NONETHELESS, I will continue to complain.

After my three hour commute the other day, the power went out and we built a fire.  We lit some candles, fired up the kerosene lamps, and pretty much continued with what we were doing.  I got my book light so I could keep reading (Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhonda Janzen, which is pretty funny so far).  Adam was playing chess on his laptop and still had plenty of battery power left.  After a few hours, I got a blanket and pillow and decided to sleep in the living room.  We have a giant sectional that seats eight (or more!) and sleeps two to three.  So we both slept on the couch, with kitty in the corner between our heads.

I will pause here for you to say, "Awwww!"

I woke to silence at about 7am.  Still no power, and this meant no heat.  The fire was nearly extinguished so I stoked it up and looked out at the 12 inches of fresh snow on the road.  I called work to let them know I would be in whenever the plow came through and buried myself once again in my cozy nest.

Around noon, we decided the power had been out for a bit longer than usual.  You see, since moving to the middle of nowhere, we had become accustomed to the many outages.  BGE (Baltimore Gas and Electric) is a contact on my cell phone. On January 27, I called the outage number because they usually give a time when we can expect power to be restored.  I figured it would be any minute now.

Electronic BGE man says, "Your power will be restored by" (switch to even more electronic voice) "January. Twenty. Nine. at. eleven-thirty. P.M."

Yikes.  We had to get more wood.

Thankfully, the power roared to life a mere eight hours later after I got back from the gym (and its shower!) on the 28th.  I had just shoveled out the grill and was about to fire it up.  If not for the house temperature of 57 degrees, I didn't mind losing power so much.  Out of shear curiosity, we got the Internet up and running, and we checked out the BGE Facebook page to see the extent of the damage and outages.

Most people left comments about how the power company workers should be safe and thanked them for braving the unplowed roads to work in below freezing temperatures.  Most of the rest of the people were humorously coping with their outage, saying things like, "I dare you to turn my power on by 11:30!"

But isn't it funny how we tend to hone in on the one negative idiot?  This woman posted several times, and I just have to share, especially in light of a recent post about Internet idiots over at Mission Improvisational:

(This chick is apparently not too proud to have her name out there on a public page, but I'm going to omit it.)

Explain n0t til sunday the i hav had n0 p0wer f0r 24 hr n0w n0 water and n0 heat and 3 kids and pets and ive cald n0t til sunday thats n0t fair

Prety hard t0 send pets away whn we cnt get 0ut 0f 0ur driue way n0 heat n00 water 3 children n0 p0wer f0r alm0st 24 hr they say sunday ths is abrured


‎15 hr stil n0 power and yes i caled it in and they told me to relocate h0w co we do that if we cnt make it 0ut our drive way and have pets tryn t0 b undstading but its exstreamly cold

U al suck hav 3 kids and hav pets that r guna die cause they ned heat s thks


A few people offered advice to beat the cold, tips on how to keep perishable food from perishing, and consolations that it is not as bad as she thinks (or thnks, if that's your fancy).  But this woman insisted on being dramatic.  Luckily her internet access phone was still working, because it really wouldn't be roughing it without an audience.


Geesh!


Keep warm, Constant Readers!