It's been a bit wild around these parts for the past 38 hours. The electricity went out at 11 pm on Thursday night and was just turned on about 20 minutes ago.
An ice storm, the biggest since 1998, swept through NE on Thursday and laid waste to much of the Maine seacoast, most of New Hampshire and a good portion of Massachusetts. Almost 1.3 million people in New England were without power for some portion of the last few days (at noon today, Central Maine Power reported that more than 169,000 folks in the state were still without juice).
We lost a birch and large portions of most of our pines, and we also lost two gallons of Blue Bell ice cream (sent from Texas), but all in all, we were lucky. The basement is dry, the trees that did come down did no damage and were easily removed with a chain saw and a bit of help from the neighbors and with the fireplace stoked up and the propane stove burning, we kept pretty warm (Ok, I'm still wearing my hot chilies, but it's not too bad in here--41 at the lowest temperature earlier this morning).
The neighborhood Christmas party was canceled for last night--not because of the lack of power, but because the host's basement had three feet of water sloshing around. No one's phone seemed to be working yesterday so RG and I hand wrote out 35 notices and distributed them to the neighbors, while the hosts bailed out. The party is rescheduled for tonight, power or no: "bring your own candle and a bottle of wine".
We spent last evening at the neighbors, eating steak, cole slaw, rolls warmed on the grill and potato salad. We made s'mores for dessert and they went very well with the tasty pinot noir we were sipping.
We walked home by the light of the biggest, brightest full moon that I can ever remember--or maybe it just looked that way because there was no artificial light to compete with it--and we stoked the fire up as big as we could, bundled up in as many blankets as we could find, gathered the animals in the study (one cat on each of our laps and Mac the Dog on his pillow by the fire) and slept in our recliners. It wasn't too bad until we woke up this morning, middle-aged bones aching and sore and our fingers frozen from the cold.
Coffee was the first order of the day, so we went for breakfast to Rick's Cafe in the village, along with three of the neighbors. We all cradled our cups and gazed at them as if they held the key to all happiness--oh, wait, at that moment, those cups did!
On the way back from the restaurant, we took a tour of town, checking out the damage, snooping in windows to see who had power (most of the town, it appeared) and we came across the CMP staging area. About 40 trucks idling while a group of workers huddled around a map and looked to be making plans to deploy. YAY!
In preparation for the holiday party, we went to the neighbor's with a generator, took a shower and I did my 'do. Back home, we huddled near the fire, split some wood and read. Until, miraculously, the power came on.
I'm now waiting for the hot water tank to finish heating and I'm going to take me the longest, hottest bath, ever!
I know having no heat and losing the contents of your freezer sucks, but the thing I am saddest about are the trees. Knowing that the landscape you know and love will be changed forever just makes me sad. Who knew I was a tree hugger?
I know the last ice storm you had up north a few years ago took all the tops off of our ours, I wonder what it looks like up there now.
Posted by: Jo | December 13, 2008 at 06:04 PM
The tree loss IS sad. But I'm glad you were otherwise pretty much unscathed. I had to laugh at one of your tweets re: getting nervous with the power outage because your Kindle battery was low and needed recharging. We have the same priorities!
Ice storms DO make for beautiful photos.
Posted by: Tonya | December 13, 2008 at 07:08 PM
Glad to know you guys are back on line! I have friends in Wells who were, as of this am, still in the dark.
Posted by: Lisa K | December 14, 2008 at 02:02 PM
Quite a storm, wasn't it? Our power came on at noon today, while neighbors were sitting in my living room talking about their frozen pipes. When my husband and I were driving around this morning, we kept noticing and commenting on the trees. So many good ones down. "Let's just drive around and feel sad about the trees," I said.
Posted by: Account Deleted | December 14, 2008 at 05:48 PM
Nothing like a power outage to make you thankful for the little things we take for granted. Glad you're all safe.
Posted by: Deb | December 15, 2008 at 07:11 AM
Hey y'all-
Thanks for the comments and good wishes. I am most sad about the tree loss; we lost only one birch, already marked to be taken down due to disease, but around town and around the area, we lost so many wonderful old trees. It really is the saddest part of this situation. Food can be bought, pipes repaired, but those gorgeous trees will take a hundred years to be replaced.
Posted by: Melissa | December 15, 2008 at 12:52 PM
THIS was a wild one! I've been in New England all of my life and I've never been through weather as bad as this. Bad Times....
Posted by: K-Sea | December 16, 2008 at 01:57 AM
Down heah in Mechanic B'gawd Falls, I lost power three different times for about two hours each. Damned lucky if you ask me. In '98 it was for 10 days. at that point friends invited me to Brunswick to an old old house I remembered being in as a kid. The grandchildren own it now ( my age) and use it only in the summer. Everything in it is untouched. Amazing trip down memory lane as I recognized old photos of the family, and sat at the same kitchen table where my grandmother took me to play "beano" with the neighbors "down on the landin'as it has always been known.
Are you ready for Sunday up coming? About a foot of snow predicted but snow isn't really a threat to power- if it's not sleet and freezing rain. We did about the same as you around here during this last one. Does bring folks together, doesn't it? Power up the skiddah.
...Charlie
Posted by: Charlie Berry | December 19, 2008 at 08:26 AM