At least there weren't any outages.

uh, oh yes there were! That's right, from your mouth to God's ears, to our house...Jonesy you mentioned the power going out, and ours did!!! thanks a lot :P

11:30--I was standing at my craft table, in the basement, having just cleaned off a paintbrush, and the lights flickered...oh crap, I thought...I bet we are going to loose... And the electric goes out!

So I slowly, very slowly...since it's pitch dark---seriously, no light in the basement, I actually thought, well, this is what it's like to be blind--I make my way over to the stairs, and make my way up them to the door. Opening the door, there really isn't any better light, so I s-l-o-w-l-y make my way to my room and feel around for my cell phone...flip it open, and ♫aaaaahhhh♫ I have some light! So I use it to find my way, quickly, to the kitchen where I can search for the flashlight. Yeah! now I have real light!!! ☼ OR at least brighter and more distributed light.

So now I have to worry about those in the house that need to get up in the morning, and who are sleeping...my mother. So I set the alarm on my cell phone to go off at 6 am. I'm such a thoughtful daughter ♥ And then, as the (possibly freezing) rain is coming down, I worry about the sump pump. Yeah, flooding in the basement...where all my art/craft/LETTERBOXING supplies are kept! Yes, I panicked. QUICKLY going down the basement to check on the water level...I realize it really has not been that long since the power was out. The water was not high....yet.

There is nothing I can do here in the dark, so I decide to go to bed...setting the alarm on my cell phone to wake me up in two hours. I know I will have to keep an eye on the pump. I wake up, check the water, oh crud! yep, it's to the top. Dang rain, Dang power outage! Ok, gotta think of what to do. I know we have a generator, have no idea where it is. I should get a bucket and start emptying some of this water...just in case.

My dad works 3^rd shift, so I call his work and ask to get in touch with him. He says to call my brother, see if he'll come over. I call my brother, he's in the middle of feeding, by hand, a newborn kitten (from that morning--which I had to go help with, that's another story!) So he tells me to find the generator, and get it started...uh, yeah, no can do!

So after a few talks between myself, my brother, and my dad....I begin to remove some water by bucket, and then my brother ends up showing up and HE finds the generator and we get it gassed up, hooked up, and running the pump! (and a couple lights so we can see) It's now almost 3:30 am. My brother suggests I unplug the pump every so often, so as to conserve what little gas is left.

Well, I'm not staying up all night! I eat a bowl of cereal...pondering what I should do. So I set my cell alarm to go off at 5 am...a little more than a hour away at this point. I go to bed. A light has been hooked up to be on all night, to see, just in case someone had to get up to potty. The alarm goes off, the water was almost to the top again, I go plug the pump in. I wait...a short time...for the water level to go back down. I realize I will have to wake up in a hour to do this again...which I had my alarm set to do anyway so I could wake my mother for work.

That's right, I was up alot throughout the night because that darn outage----again, thanks Jones! (I kid, I kid!!)

Any hoo, it came back on at 6:30 this morning...and I was suppose to take my niece to her sisters' school this morning at 8:30...for this great Pancake Guy thing they have...this guy makes pancakes for everyone, flips them and you have to catch them on your plate in mid-air...well, as I am up at 6:30, I find out the school is on a two hour delay (and then ends up being cancelled)...no pancakes...but now I can go back to bed and not worry about waking up in another hour!

that winter wonderland can kiss my sleepy butt! :P

on another note---thanks SM for your nice comments on my picture captions...I'll have to teach you the fine art of picture taking at just the wrong moment!

~Wander Woman

OMG............why aren't you sleeping NOW???

Sorry you lost power, Hope. We kept ours on somehow. But we've lost branches from our big tree. See, you should have gotten out the flashlights earlier, then you would have kept your power on!!!!!!! I'm sure that if I hadn't gotten out every flashlight we own, along with the batteries just in case, we would have been in the dark not able to locate them!

And SM already has the ablitiy of taking pictures at just the right (wrong!) time. I thought he was the best at capturing everyone's "best" moment!!!!! :)
songwriter

WW, I am wore out reading your post!! Great tip: I am going to go to the basement and check the pump here. And, this also reminds me I need to go over to the other house and pick up my generator. That house is in a flood plain. The pump has never came on in say 5 years at that house. This house is not in a flood plain and we've been fighting the water for 2 weeks. What is that deal?

uh, oh yes there were! That's right, from your mouth to God's ears, to our house...Jonesy you mentioned the power going out, and ours did!!! thanks a lot :P

As I sit here with a smile on my face, trying to keep the laugh back, I think of you in your basement. I've been there and know it can be dark!!! I then think of your kitties running around your legs and tripping you up (which it doesn't sound like they did!!) And your brother, feeding a kitten by hand- I couldn't belive that one!

So what did you do with all the water in the buckets? Are they still sitting in the basement? (He, He, He)

I'll make sure to call you a few times this morning to see if you can help me with my clues, stamps, answer a question about a cat, come help me find my dog, oh yeah and see if you are sleeping!!!!!

(you know I love you, right?)

Shame on you DW for missing work---our "boys" will be lost without you!!!It's a good thing the boss can't call me back to work yet!!;I'm sure I would have got a call this morning in all this ice!!

I lost big branches too and they fell right on my lilac bush! no pretty smellin flowers this spring I guess..

Here in Stark County my neighborhood lost power at about 1 am. I woke up about 2:30 and felt like I was blind! I stumbled over to my desk to get my cell phone and set the alarm to get up for school. Although I didn't need to cause I got this cool alarm clock that automatically sets to the right time when plugged in and if the power goes out, the alarm still goes off. Now I know the alarm part really does work! But anyway, doing your hair and putting contacts in is very hard to do in the dark! In fact, I lost one of my contacts so I've been seeing everything kinda blurry all day . :-/

Lilac Butterfly

WEll, we did have enough ice to cause some limbs (and even a small tree) to fall. It led to a 2 hour delay this morning...which was pleasant. This afternoon though was the best part.

I was meeting with a group of my kids and had my back to the window...one of the kids said that the trees looked like christmas. I turned around to see all of the trees lit up by a brief moment of sun. They DID look like someone had strung them with hundreds of white lights. VERY pretty...but brief. That must have been one of those little miracles!