powerless

No today is blog post is not about political or governmental power. When it comes to those entities we will always have power. It may not feel that way and they may not tell you that, but the power of the people is something that will always go on. We may be told that we don't have power, but we do. Don't ever forget it. Don't give up. 

What today is blog post is about is actual powerlessness. Meeting no electrical power. The thing that we all dread the most when the temperatures are in the '80s, '90s and even higher and humidity is through the roof or when temperatures are in the 20s and below and no matter how many blankets you have you can't get warm.

I posted yesterday late morning/early afternoon about what I was doing for the holiday.  I spent the rest of the afternoon attempting to make my own red, white & blue version of a Blue Spoodle (a drink served at the long gone Spoodles restaurant found at Walt Disney World's Boardwalk Resort).

The drink has always been blue (Blue Curaçao) and the recipe I have (which is NOT what I recently found on line) included raspberry flavoring around the rim (which could be red) and some whipped topping.  The version I have is a delicious frosty adult beverage and could also be considered a dessert.  I also topped mine with 2 cherries in an attempt to get it really red, white & blue as opposed to purple, white and blue.

I also finished watching season 2 of The Pitt.  I had purposely put off watching it until summer had officially begun since the season takes place on July 4th.  Turns out that I timed it so that I watched an episode a day ending on the actual 4th.  I have to say I enjoyed this season even more than season 1 and so much of the show rang true and hit home with me, especially as the team watched the fireworks towards the end of the show.  (Don't think that's too much of a spoiler.)

We had no real evening plans.  (Hey we're old.)  Hubby made hot dogs for dinner and we were listening to Sirius XM's Yacht Country. (Or was it Yacht Soul?  I like "Yacht" listening for the summer, but once Labor Day hits, I'm off it.)    Some crazy storms rolled in.  Heavy rain!  Really heavy rain. Suddenly the power went out.  A minute or two passed and it came back on. Then it went off.  Then it went on.  Then it went off.  And on.  Finally back to off.

The generator kicked in.  (We now pretty much know everything that it powers...some things still don't make sense, but...)  We reported the outage (which took a while) and waiting.  Power was estimated to be restored by PPL by TUESDAY, July 7th.  Oh no!

We did what we could.  We cleaned up dinner.  I wanted to open windows because it was so hot, but...

There wasn't much we COULD do other than cool down with showers (before the dark set in)and read. We tried to go to sleep.  The generator is LOUD (sorry neighbors), but...The showers slowed down.  I opened some windows.  I tried (again) to go to sleep.  Eventually I (sort of) did.

 Woke up just before midnight.  The power was on.  Hoorah!  We went to close things up and reset things.  And then...power went back out again after 2 minutes.  What a cruel tease!  I listened to the generator chug along.  We've never used the generator for so long.  How long can it run?  We have three propane tanks on the property:  a BIG one that covers the oven/stoves and fireplace and two smaller ones (that we don't know) that power the generator.  They were filled earlier this year and we never had to use them, except for the 5 minute power up that happens every week.  Now I worried how long they would last?

 We tried to sleep.  We did a little.  I was up a little before 6 as I was scheduled to be the reader at church that morning. (The early service.)  Generator was still going.

 I checked in on how things stood in our neighborhood.  Someone said power had been restored to our village.  However, not our part. Ugh.

 Hubby got up and we figured out how to open the garage door manually.  (Something we should have done back in June.)  I got ready for church.  Our bedroom had power, but our bathroom did not.  The bathroom across the hall had power for the lights, but not the outlets.  An extension cord from our bedroom to the bathroom across the hall helped.

 I went to church, leaving early because I did not know how the drive would be.  I could see plenty of tree limbs down.  One was on a power line leading to someone's house.  The businesses at the end of the street (leading to the main road) were all dark.  Pretty much everything seemed to be dark until I got to the library (about a mile and a half away.)  

 Thankfully I had no trouble getting to church AND the church did have power.  With the holiday weekend, the early morning attendance was sparser than usual, but I will say that only 1/5 of the people who were there had electricity.  That's not a good percentage.

 I headed home after the service.  Hubby had run the extension cord from our bedroom to the coffee maker in the kitchen. We need our coffee!  (I could have had some at church, but I knew he was going to make it.)  We sat quietly drinking coffee and doing the NY Times puzzles/reading.

 I decided to check on things in our backyard.  The fish were happily swimming.  The generator kept the bubbler on (which is a must for the winter months).  Watching the fish was just as calming as being in church that morning.  Then I heard a noise...

 I looked over and the waterfall portion of the pond was flowing again.  That could mean one thing!  The power was back.  (The generator does NOT cover the pump for the falls.)  I ran inside.  Power was back.  But would it last?  We waited.  We waited nervously.  Several minutes went by.  The generator stopped.  We waited a little while longer. The power stayed on.  We unplugged the extension cords.  We reset clocks.  We kept our fingers crossed.

 As I write this, the power is still on, but I can still hear the sounds of generators in the distance.  Hopefully that will end soon.

 However, we are supposed to get yet another round of storms tonight.  Who knows what might happen? 

 I'm just hoping that today, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future, we remain Powerful...because I've had enough of being powerless!