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It started to snow on Friday, Feb. 5, and by Saturday morning, it was over 2 ft deep. The lights went out around 11am, not to come back until late Monday night. It was a long and difficult couple of days. The temperature in the house hovered in the 40's, and our breath steamed in the frigid air. By some unaccountable good fortune, the water heater continued valiantly providing hot water, and the wonderful gas stove kept us supplied with hot food--even made toast of a sort, on its 4 never tiring rings of fire. |
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Lawrence kept the fireplace provided with wood from the steadily diminishing wood pile outside--which was buried under deep drifts of snow, so that he had to adopt an interesting style of clothing to keep dry on these forays.
The cats and I huddled on the sofa under quilts and blankets. I have never worn quite so many clothes at once before.
On Monday, the snow plow finally cleared a path down our street. After a hour of shoveling snow (our daily exercise for days, it seemed) we broke through the 4 foot barrier the truck raised between our laboriously shoveled drive and the cleared part of the street and drove to a restaurant for dinner--warmth, light, people! On returning home, we retired into our freezing bed, and then--MIRACOLO! The power returned! Such joy!
But, there was more snow in the wings. LOTS more. Note progression of bird bath pictures: on Saturday, it had a cute little cap of snow.
Then came a new storm on Tuesday, and the birdbath vanished, as did the patio furniture. Now the whole backyard was just nameless lumps of white.
And somehow, we muddled through.
Of course, of course, our forbears made do--thrived!--with much less--but that consideration provides much less comfort than you might suppose.
This house was not built to be heated by its little ornamental fireplace; our training and habits have not accustomed us to living without electricity.For which we are very grateful.
Our grateful thanks also to the snow removal crews and the electricity fixing crews! Blessings on you, lads!