Last night was fun(I’m saying that sarcasticly but I’m sure its not coming across that well in text form). We had some scattered thunderstorms roll through the area last night with intense rain and high winds – fortunately or unfortunately for us all we got was a slight drizzle. The fortunate part was that we avoided any potential damage, the unfortunate part was that our power decided to cut out anyway. I would have to guesstimate that our power goes out at least 10-20 times per year and although it is mostly out for maybe an hour max there are occasions like last night where it cuts out for at least a few hours.
There was a really bad snow storm about 5 years ago when we still lived about 10 mins outside Stroudsburg that knocked power out for over a week – luckily the in-laws are close by and we had a place to stay – I can’t imagine what you would do in a situation like that if you didn’t have friends/relatives close by. The issue that comes to hand is when you use well water well (pun intended) you’re in a bad situation since you’re unable to use it without power. Flushing the toilet, washing your hands, taking a shower, getting a drink…it makes it pretty much impossible to stay for an extended period without power.Â
Last night at about 7:30PM the power went out – call me crazy but I would have liked to have gotten the more intense part of the storm so it felt a little more justified. When the storm simply passed by with nothing more then a sprinkle I was disappointed. When the power was still off at 10:30 I was a bit restless – the first few hours you can manage to catch up on perfecting your shadow puppet skills, telling ghost stories(or gossiping), even calling people to catch up. When it heads past 2-3 hours the worry sets in about the food – it never fails, Monday we had done a large grocery shopping so of course it would be 2 days later that the power goes out for 4 hours so I get to sit and worry if we’re going to need to get rid of it all.
Long story short, we made numerous calls to PPL during which we couldn’t even report the outage “due to strong storms that have passed through the area we are experiencing high call volume and are unable to take your call, please try again later”.  Finally when we got through to report the outage and we didn’t get an estimated time until about 10:30 we were told that the power would be back on by 1:30am. Ugh.
 Luckily at 11:30 the power popped back on, we were able to turn the air on(even though the 95 degree weather had cooled off it was still incredibly humid) and get everything in order with minimal damage. Sad to say the huge bowl of potato salad(that was in the fridge) I had made just prior to the power going out was lost – I just don’t trust mayo that looks discolored like that.
 So some tips:
1) Keep your power company’s phone number and your account number in your cell phone. We have all cordless phones so they obviously will not work when the power is out. It can get quite frustrating to rummage through bills to grab the electric company’s number as well so do yourself a favor and keep it either in your cell or by the phone.
2) Flashlights and candles – always the obvious but I know on any given day we have 10 of each lying around but either a) they’re missing batteries or b) the lighters are out of fluid. Make sure to keep at least 1-2 of each in a “storm only” spot for both summer and winter and check them occasionally to make sure they’re working.
3) Water – its always good to keep at least a few bottles and/or jugs on hand regardless but they really can come in handy – whether its for drinking or a quick wash of the hands its amazing how much use you’ll get out of them.
4) Activities – luckily for us last night our son went to bed at 8:00 and it was light enough out that we could leave his shades open as a ‘night light’ but for outages in the winter it really helps to have some kiddie flash lights, toys with lights, etc. to have on hand to keep the kids occupied. For tus older kids we tried doing crosswords by candlelight – I can’t say I recommend it since the light was so dim I had a headache from all the eye strain. So come up with some creative ideas ahead of time – games on your cell phone(be careful of battery life) or laptop, shadow puppets, a friend nearby with power – the 5 minutes it takes you to come up with some ideas in the light of day will save you hours of frustration unprepared in the dark at night.
For anyone else that lost power, I feel your pain, I can’t really complain since there are definitely millions of other things more tragic in life but it is inconvenient. Typing this all out is a good venting method and now I can let it go – until next time… 🙂
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