I never for one minute thought Halloween would be snowed out. I never for even a second thought this snow was going to be anything more than just too early for my liking. Consequently I didn't fill my car with gas the night before. I didn't stock up on batteries; milk; bread; candles and all the various sundries that are standard stocking items for all predicted storms these days. I didn't do anything other than put my car in the garage for the night and take in most of the lawn items that need to come in before winter. I really had no clue that Mother Nature was about to wallop us like she did. What a meanie she turned out to be!
The next 5 days and nights turned out to be a scramble for candles; flashlights; batteries; and above all heat! First the snow had to be cleared away from steps; walk ways and driveway. But the mass of destroyed trees and downed power lines turned that ordinary winter chore into a nightmare. My yard was full of tree limbs and branches...mostly belonging to my neighbors. I shouldn't have been surprised by this because we'd spent the night of the storm listening to the constantly cracking of the trees outside and hoping nothing fell on my house. In that respect I was lucky. My one large tree in the front yard took a beating but it was still standing. The one tree in the back only lost one dead limb.
The girls (my dogs) were overly excited about the new snow..even though they were shivering with the cold. They turned into very large puppies and were bounding from one snow pile to the next. I had to almost drag them back into the house.
I had put my car into the garage the night before mainly because it's old and rain will sometimes get into the back causing that unpleasant musty smell. I baby that car to keep it going as long as possible. I didn't have any immediate need to leave the house because there was no work to go to and the roads were for the most part impassible. So it was over a day later that I had the sudden realization that my garage door is electric and how the hell was I going to get my car out? Luckily my boss told me there had to be a release mechanism there somewhere to bypass the lock. I found it eventually and was much relieved but that opened up new problems because as I stated earlier, I didn't fill my tank with gas before the storm. Gas was hard to come by due to the gas stations not having power. All the gas in the world won't be any help if you have no power to pump it. I lucked out and had gas delivered to me by a friend that was able to get out of state with one of my gas cans in tow. That problem was solved.
Next I had to get food stuffs that didn't need refrigeration and at least in theory could be cooked on the one little charcoal grill we had to use. Stop and Shop was opened under generator power and was selling nonperishable items. When I got there the place was swarming with people, there were no carriages and everything was in partial darkness. (there is something very creepy about being in a large store that is not fully lit...felt like something was going to jump out at you around every corner). I commandeered a carriage from a bewildered store employee after realizing I couldn't possibly get everything using a small basket. I think the survival mode was kicking in at this point. I needed that carriage; I took it. Sorry dude.
I ended up buying a lot of foods that I don't normally eat...mainly because I consider them crap. Oh well...desperate times call for desperate measures. Better to have a belly full of granola bars and soup than to have an empty belly.
Having obtained some of the basics I needed, I started to build a routine each day of starting the charcoal grill; waiting a lifetime for it to be hot enough to use; spending incredible amounts of time trying to make a cup of tea (only to have it lukewarm anyway or taste like charcoal); deciding what foods needed to be eaten first from the fridge and freezer; layering perishable items in a cooler with snow; handing out foods to friends and family that had generators so it wouldn't be wasted; rationing batteries and candles; clearing more tree debris each day; heating water to clean oneself as quickly and efficiently as possible (in a very cold room) and listening to endless automated phone messages from the town of Enfield. I quickly learned it is utterly exhausting to live this way. Not having the bare essentials of heat; hot water and electricity is demoralizing as well. The daily struggle at first was a challenge but quickly became a huge burden and eventually led to some level of depression and apathy. I began to wonder how the pioneers could have done it and realized although I could provide the basics for survival on my own it's the luxuries (like hot water and being warm) that make the difference in living well and just living. I am no pioneer woman!
Luckily for me a friend got power before me and I had a warm bed for two nights. I was even able to bring my dogs with me and they were grateful to be warm too. The first couple of days of playing in the snow dimmed considerably when they never got the chance to be warm. The poor dogs were shivering each morning despite my having loaded them up with bedding to sleep in and covering their pens with blankets as well. They just don't have the warm coats that a lot of other dogs have and I never considered buying them any 'doggy coats' for winter before. I was as ill equipped to keep them warm as I was to keep myself warm. So despite the fact they had to share an apartment with another dog they were as grateful as I was to have a warm place to sleep. As soon as they arrived they took over the available doggy bed; fashioned their bedding into a cozy sleeping spot and passed out..only waking for short bursts of play; potty calls and to enjoy the homemade treats I'd brought with me. They were as exhausted as I was.
The first night I stayed at my friends house I saw that power had been restored to part of my road. Unfortunately that power stopped literally two houses from mine. Nothing made me want to cry more than to see the line of street lights stop two houses from my house. I felt a mixture of hope and desperation seeing all the lights and I have to admit also anger. It's true you do start to form an attitude of 'me first' when desperation rears it's ugly head. I'd been hearing reports on the radio of people having violent and angry outbursts at gas stations; stores and on the roads. I understand that feeling now.
It was still another couple of days before power was restored to my house. I was heading back home to sleep in the cold again when I saw all the lights on in my house. Normally the waste of electricity would irritate me into scolding the culprit that had left the lights on. This time it was a welcome beacon in the desolate winter night. I was hooting and hollering and bouncing about in my car before I even pulled into the driveway. The dogs didn't understand what was going on but they started barking and bouncing around in the back as well. We had lights, we had heat and all would be well now. The house was still cold so the power hadn't been on long but it didn't matter anymore. I knew the nightmare was over.
It took days to clean up the mess created by living like that. Everything needed washing...and with HOT water instead of cold. Candles were stored away along with flashlights and extra blankets. And I've yet to get all the plastic bags of snow out of my freezer.( Hearing that little tip on the radio saved me from losing a lot of frozen meats.) It's amazing how well it worked to pack bags of snow in between and around the meats and veggies in my chest freezer. And that's just one thing I learned from this experience. From now on I'm going to have an emergency box to go to when the power is out. I'm stocking it with candles; flashlights (and a few batteries); blankets; plastic bags; camping equipment and such. I also will remember that I had less problems than some of my family members because I keep a little cash on hand for emergencies. My Dad taught me that. Everyone else around me had issues buying gas and food because the ATM machines didn't have power and they didn't have cash. I'm going to keep large bottles of water in my freezer going forward. It will help insulate the freezer and provide necessary water if we lose power. I was lucky in some respects. I was able to flush my toilets and I had running water because I'm on town water. People with wells weren't so lucky. I also had a working telephone because I never got rid of my land line and corded phones. Cordless phones and a lot of cell phones were useless. It pays not to be too dependent on technology and I came out ahead of the game because of my non-dependence. I've always made it a policy to not be too dependent on any technology or to at least have a back up plan in your head. I don't own a cell phone and you don't miss what you've never had.
Now that I was 're-electrified' I felt it was only right to take in others that didn't have power. Two of my son's friends moved in a couple of hours after I got power. An inflatable air mattress was employed along with blankets and hot food. Everyone was warm and happy and soon were sound asleep. My water heater decided to act up by spewing water all over the basement so I was up most of the night waiting for a repair guy and then trying to placate the nasty tempered fellow once he was here. In the end he made the repairs; told me a few stories about customers that have yelled at him; wrote me up my bill and departed. The house was warming up again and I was finally able to go to bed.
And during all this turmoil and recovery and all the days of creeping to work driving around and sometimes under scary trees laying on power lines and huge mounds of brush and tree limbs my thoughts kept sliding back to Halloween. This all started a couple of days before Halloween and so there was no Halloween. I still haven't packed away my costume boxes or deflated good old 'bones' the inflatable skeleton. He's sitting crumpled up with the loss of air, in a corner of the room still wearing the pirate costume I dressed him in and looking much the way I feel inside about missing Halloween this year. I didn't get a chance to wear my new costume or hand out candy but I'll be primed for all the Halloween fun next year. We're sliding quickly into Thanksgiving now and I'm still feeling the loss of all that fun. I'm also feeling a little bit afraid of what we may have coming our way this winter.
So when I finally get around to getting the rest of the bags of snow out of my freezer and packing all my Halloween paraphernalia away I'll be sure to get that emergency box ready too. And I'll be keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that we have a very little bit of snow this winter.
