No Power, No Heat, No School

Tuesday morning started early. 3 AM. I'd slept fairly solid from 11 PM until then. I slid out of bed and it was around 50° F in the house. I went out to the garage and started the generator in the cold. I came back in with my teeth clattering. My phone claimed it was 14° F outside.

Carrie was in Shane's room and woke to the generator roaring. She'd already had trouble sleeping. Shane squirmed and we'd locked Aria in the bathroom to keep her from jumping or peeing on us in our sleep. Aria really wanted out. She started trying to open cabinet doors I had to block with their food bin and pulled and cried at the door. Carrie couldn't take it and relocated.

I told Carrie I'd stay up while the generator ran and encouraged her to go back to sleep. I let Aria out and she immediately hopped on the bed next to me as I read.

Weather.com varied on what the outside temperature was. Carrie got a screenshot showing a low of 10° F overnight.

The power company finally put up an ETA for restoring power: Friday at 4 PM. While I hoped they'd overestimated how long it would take, the state's outage map showed a rough picture.

Louisa county was 98% percent without power! It was better in Albemarle, but we still had nearly 3/5 of the households going out. 

The living room got a little warmer over the next hour or so. 

I turned off the generator for a little bit, but turned in on again around 5 AM. It was Carrie's turn to stay up this time and I managed a short nap.

I woke to a cold house and lots of animals. 

I think the pets enjoyed us sleeping in the common room. Loki laid down next to my side of the bed.

Shane was the last one to rise.

It was cold and still very snowy out.

Carrie went outside and used the grill to make us a warm breakfast.

We waited for it to get warmer before going out for morning chores (I'd thrown extra hay the night before). I started to make a second path from mine up to the hay barn. I'd walked all the bales down by hand last night and then tried the wheelbarrow this morning. Neither option was great.

Shane's the one who actually finished the path. 

He wanted to use the pink phone and I'd offered 3 minutes of use for each minute of shoveling. At first, Shane had balked and been angry. He'd said it was a terrible deal!

He changed his mind later and spent 18 minutes and 6 seconds shoveling. 

It let him disappear into his room to watch a movie on Netflix (Hilda) while Carrie napped (It was unplanned! Look at the sun!). 

Shane took his own unscheduled nap closer to dinner. He trapped Carrie and she rested, as well.

I ended up doing evening chores by myself.

Shane still complained about my cellphone flashlight when we shut down the generator and bedded down as a family again. We left Aria out this time and she made a beeline to sleep next to me.

Happy popped up on the bed, too, and Shane kept clucking and kissing trying to get her to crawl up to him. He had to settle for Happy bedding down at his feet, though.

The plan was the same as last night: Cuddle up for warmth and sleep as long as possible. Whenever I woke and was coherent enough I'd start the generator to make sure the house didn't get too cold. The low for the night was only supposed to hit 23°, so we were better off than the night before.

Grandma and Grandpa asked Carrie if we'd be okay. I replied, "It's gratitude training." The conditions weren't ideal, but we had food, shelter, and a backup generator. Of the people without power, I figured we were in relatively great situation. The book I was reading was a historical fiction about Genghis Khan and our situation was way better than Mongolians had it in the 12th century! All reasons to be thankful to God.