Back! (finally)

It's been quite the week here.

Thursday saw an ice storm which motivated some unknown (to me) idiot to smack her/her car upside a utility pole, putting the power out to the whole area until mid-day Friday. Oh Joy. I finally got home Thursday night in the sleet-fest, alternately delayed to no small extent by members of both classes of West Virginia winter drivers.

For those not familiar, once it snows, the driving population divides itself into two teams. The first is the crew that slows to roughly 5mph and proceeds to just drive up and down the two-lane highways for no apparent purpose other than to stack the rest of us up in long trains of slow-moving vehicles. The second team is comprised of those goobers who mistakenly believe that their pickup tricks--mostly two-wheel drive versions--possess the traction needed to steer and stop when operated at insanely high speeds in the snow and ice. Fortunately most of them wind up in the ditches in the first fifteen minutes or so but they still manage to mess traffic up for the rest of us in numerous ways.

And of course once off of the paved two-lanes, getting to the Lair itself is complicated by all of the new people who moved in since the last winter's end and who didn't realize that their little two-wheel drive city cars aren't at all suited to the steep, narrow rural roads that we have here. My 4x4 had no trouble at all but I had to detour around no less than three such people, each of whom managed to completely block one road or another with their stuck cars. But I finally got home to a cold and dark house, which I set about remedying with a fire in the fireplace and a few Coleman lights which were set up in advance in anticipation of just such a situation. Allegheny Power had promised a restoration of electricity by 9PM that night but of course, as is typical with Allegheny, 9PM came and went with no power. So did 10PM, midnight, and eventually, sunrise. In fact it was almost 3PM the next day before they got it back on line.

Meanwhile though, I had the opportunity to test my emergency management skills and these are my unvarnished critiques and observations:

1. Light. For starters, I have numerous flashlights around the house, but as I tend to use them for things and almost never put them back, most weren't handy and the first one that I found was dead since I hadn't recharged it recently. But I did find my trusty Brinkmann 6 volt and it had enough power to get me through the night. It also allowed me to find and light off the Coleman propane lanterns that I had ready--gas canisters installed and mantles burned down--just waiting to be lit.

2. Heat. My pellet stove would have been nice to use, but it needs electricity and the generator that I'd bought to run that and other essential devices was out of service. Ironically I had planned to take it in for repair this week-end. It was in the basement but fat lot of good it did me. Still, I brought wood in and lit off the fireplace. That warmed the library up nice at least. An extra comforter on the bed kept the cold at bay.

3. Food. I have a fair bit of stuff that can be eaten cold, but I didn't feel like doing that so I cooked dinner over the fire in the fireplace. When the power didn't come on by morning, I broke out the Coleman stove for a nice hot breakfast and coffee.

4. Water. The well pump wasn't working, so there was no shower--a factor in my decision not to try to go to work Friday morning. But I have several gallons of bottled water stored for just such an occasion and numerous gallon jugs of tap water set aside for washing and flushing toilets. A toilet tank needs 2.5 to 3 gallons per flush and I keep a week's supply available. It served me well this time.

5. Communications. My cell phone had sufficient charge to last until the power came back but I kept it turned off to maximize it's battery charge. Worse come to worse, I could have charged it off my vehicle power jacks if need be.

6. Clocks. In addition to my cell phone's clock, two of my alarm clocks have battery back-ups and they not only told time but the alarms worked so I could get up and check road conditions in the morning. They were still bad so I stayed home.

7. Security. I still had Lagniappe the Land Shark on duty and a ready pistol with night sights in case I need to deal with some of those cretins who always seem to try to take advantage of such situations.

As annoying as power outages are, it's good to get the chance to test the emergency procedures every now and again, if for no other reason than to ensure that when things really go bad, the transition will be as seamless as possible.

Of course that doesn't mean that I'm not calling Allegheny Power up and demanding credit for a day's lost power.