After five great hours on Tuesday where we had power for some reason, we woke up Wednesday morning to 11° outside and 51° inside. The old sleeping bag I found worked great since it is rated for cold temperatures and I had a good night of sleep. That bag was not in with my camping stuff but I found later in a closet. I must have put it in there when I moved in.
The hounds, dogs and their routines did not change. It was like they didn't know it was cold and most of the time I had to beg, yell or bribe them with dog treats to get them to come inside. I was thinking of what the plan was because based on information from the CenterPoint Energy and their new emails, my town and area was last on the list of five areas to get power. It was expected to be back on Friday by 11:45pm they said, BUT they said it was possible it might be back on earlier than that.
Even in tundra temperatures, Walter never missed a beat in his trips outside and never once hesitated to go outside. He will be five years old in February. He would even go to the door when he needed to go outside and it seemed with the cold weather it was more than normal.
My phone battery didn't hold charge that long. I could charge it at The Donut Bank along with my Apple Watch. I found out the watched stayed charged almost twice as long as the phone. That decision to go back to the store to buy food in small one serving cans, boxed or packets was a good move. I had fresh oranges, apples and pears. A funny story later about the oranges. So I snacked during the day only when I was hungry and drank plenty of water. I could leave my glass full of water on the counter and it would stay as cold as it did the fridge, which was turned off.
3:10 AM I wake up Wednesday night/Thursday morning and grab an orange from the bowl of fruit sitting on the counter, out of reach of Cletus. Now I don't like biting into cold things like ice cream, I don't chew ice and sometimes I cannot chug ice cold water ... so was in for a surprise with that orange.
I cut it in half, then quarters and then into slices smaller than a quarter cut. I bit into that juicy orange slice and it is colder than any glass of orange juice I have ever drank. COLD .... but juicy ... I ate the orange and went back to bed. I wasn't sure though I could finish eating the orange since it was so cold.
The ice build up on the power lines concerned me but I found out on Thursday morning what the cause was for us losing power on this side of the street. The neighbor told me the transformer in her backyard exploded as did another one across the street from them.
THOSE EXPLOSIONS is what I saw Sunday night in the sky that looked like the Northern Lights.
Like anything else you get a routine when there are changes. By Wednesday morning we had a pretty good routine. Nothing had changed for the hounds and dogs but for me a few things. I kept warm inside wearing layered clothing, starting with two thermal shirts, a long sleeve shirt not quite as heavy as a sweat shirt, then a sleeveless Columbia fleece, and a North Face cloth jacket good for low temps. A few times by late afternoon it would get so cold I put a Columbia down jacket over all of that.
Flannel lined jeans and Carhart wool socks were more than enough to keep my legs and feet warm. By Wednesday at 4:30pm it was cold enough that the hounds, dogs and I headed for the bedroom to get warm. The plan was to get up by 6pm and listen to the IU basketball game on radio but the next time I woke up it was 10:10pm and 41° inside the house. When I turned on the phone I saw the battery had drained from 10% to 1% and was dead by Thursday morning.
I had one thing on my mind Thursday morning and was out the door by 7am, heading to the Cross Eyed Cricket for coffee and my first hot meal since Saturday night!!! German fries, biscuits and gravy, two eggs and great tasting coffee set my day off right. I was mentally prepared for another day of no power. I had heard enough from my neighbor across the street to know that I did not want to mess with a generator.
Yea I know that is the way to go. Many have suggested that but with me there were some issues.
I've never liked the sound of a running generator. I know it would be outside and to the right side of my garage but within my ear distance as I could hear them from neighbors that had them.
Out of curiosity I checked with my extension cord, to see if I had any doors where the cord would fit under it or in the corner with the door closed. I had the front door, then through the garage as my only choices. The front door and the door from the garage to the mudroom inside were both tighter than tight and cut close to the length of the door jam, there was no way a power cord could slide under those doors to where I could close it.
Leaving a window or a door cracked open for the cord to go through was NOT AN OPTION ... no way at 9°. That also applied to any Mr Buddy heaters or other small heaters used in RVs. My house doors and windows are sealed tight when they are closed.
As I would tell a couple of concerned friends ... if we can do this for four days we can do it for two more. It was not going to get any colder than we had experienced. We knew what we could do and not do. Things were good, it was like camping when I was younger.
My living room became my "new patio" as I, the hounds and dogs spent a lot of time there during the days this past week in hopes of seeing a line of utility trucks with booms arrive. Of course with Ava being a working dog, times like this are rare. But she and Cletus had played so hard and long they were both tired by late mornings and I mean every morning.
Those sprints she did outside every morning in good weather were now inside from the patio door to the front door with Cletus chasing her, howling and baying all the way. Henry would join the two. The noise was fine with me. They needed a way to burn up some pent up energy and they were not hurting anything. In fact they probably do that during the times I am away from the house.
Is Watson taking a nap sitting up?
I found out a couple of Milk Duds were a nice form of enjoyment during the day. Of course whenever there is food involved the hounds and dogs think it's theirs too. They would get their daily bone treats late in the afternoon, same time each day.
Each day when the temperatures would drop outside, the hounds and dogs would get closer together to keep warm. They also slept close to each other at night. They knew what was going on. As long as I could hear two maybe three of them snoring then I knew they were warm enough. I was more than warm in the clothes I wore during the day and the sleeping bag I slept in at night.
If that photo was a video you would hear Walter snoring loudly as we sat in the living room.
There was never any trucks that I needed to get my power back on but two companies never slowed down due to weather ... Amazon delivery and UPS delivery. They were driving by consistently. Those windows are a couple of weeks of hound noses. The problem was I couldn't clean them because the water or damp fiber cloth would freeze whatever I was wiping on them. It will just have to wait until it gets warm enough.
With all the movement of trucks and people Thursday afternoon and night, ALL the hounds and dogs stood there watching their every move and ready to supervise them at a moments notice. Sometimes Watson would move a window over to get a better angle to see what was going on. They never barked though so that was a nice change.
After getting back from my breakfast at the Cross Eyed Cricket on Thursday morning, it was so nice that I decided to take a walk down the street in the opposite direction of this photo. This was taken at the edge of my driveway and yes, all those trees are covered in ice. The big thing was without any wind, the 11° didn't feel that cold.
As I walked back home, that is my house with the basketball goal above the garage, you would think being the highest property in the neighborhood I would not have a flooding problem in the backyard but I do. Both neighbors on each side of me had moved to their families around town that had power. They would text me for any updates such as "Is the power on yet?". I was more than happy to keep them updated with what was going on.
It was just beautiful outside on Thursday morning. This is walking up to my street. I had walked all the way down into this valley to see if I could see any damage that might have taken my power away. At the time I had not talked to the neighbor that let me know it was blown transformers that put us in the dark.
Earlier on my walk a pickup had driven by me with a utility company name from out of town and most likely out of state. It was a company name I did not recognize for Indiana. My friend had sent me a text from a tv station showing over a 1,000 linesmen from out of town were heading our way. This was the worst storm in 15 years and there is another snow storm to follow on Friday.
Yet it was a truck, a truck from a utility company so I was a little encouraged. By 2pm I wasn't at all. In fact I had texted my friend telling her, "I don't think I will have power until Friday but we are good right now and can handle it."
Then things started happening. I don't know if these guys were having an early supper or if they were coming up with a plan. They had walked along my neighbors side yard across the street to see his broken utility pole and the power lines strung over his covered swimming pool, yard and on top of the fence. Plus there were downed lines over the fence to the roof of the house you see behind that truck with the light colored limestone.
So there was action ... but ... they are on a different utility line than I am. I now knew our problem was a transformer on my side of the street up three houses to the right. I had not seen a truck anywhere near that location. Then a friend reminded me, those transforms can blow but their fuse is in a different location, so that is why I may not see anyone on my side of the street working.
Within 10 minutes of seeing those four men talking, "the calvary" arrived. More trucks than I had ever seen going in both directions were pulling over to park. The issue though, they could not get back where they needed to be to install a new pole and put the wires back up on the new pole in those trucks with the boom on the back. At least they had the crewmen from those trucks.
The hounds, dogs and I sat and watched the movement in detail distracting me on how cold it was getting in the middle of the afternoon. Yes, you do see some bare sidewalk there. I shoveled the snow off the ice in the morning after my walk so the sun might melt some of the ice before we get our new 4"-6" of new snow on Friday.
Here came the solution to their location problem. Not only a new utility pole but that blue equipment was able to get back down the hill in the backyard to get the old pole out of the ground and drop that new pole in the same hole. They did the same technique to mine in May when mine was struck by lightning.
I starting thinking that possibly they had turned off my power to work on their power??? It was just a wild guess and one that gave me hope that if they got power I'd get mine back too.
Then at 4:40pm out of nowhere my kitchen and hallway light came on!!! The furnace kicked on. I HAD POWER before they even started working across the street. Not only did I have lights and heat but I would be able to watch the College Football Playoff game on my own tv, although I do not like either team. It was still a great game to watch.
Even though the hounds and dogs seemed to have their same routines and didn't look bothered by the lack of heat ... I could tell as the house started to warm up ... just how much they liked having a warm house again. Henry always thinks this is the best heater vent in the house. I have to talk to him at times just to get this much space between him and the heater. Cletus is also pretty smart too and knew exactly where he was going to take a nap in a warm house.
When I started feeling a little cold sitting at the computer while I downloaded days of photos, I knew why and sure enough, Henry was blocking the heat and taking it all for himself.
Ava finally relaxed and got some sleep under my desk. She is one active puppy during the day.
The crew across the street was determine to finish the job on Thursday night. So the neighbors encouraged as he texted me updates. They had been using their fireplace some and the small electric fireplace style heater for days. He said upstairs it was 51° most of the time and they were staying down stairs in back of their house to keep warmer.
He had given me information when I asked about his generator. I told him I had looked online at one at Lowes as they had a new shipment arrive. It was 6500w his was 3500w. He was getting up every 4 hours to add gas to it. It sat outside to the left of his garage side door. He would explain the details of using it when I had asked him over the past few days. With each bit of information I knew I was not going to use a generator.
By this time I was watching the football game on tv. They decided instead of coming over to get warm with the hounds and dogs, they wanted to watch the progress of the workers. I did not get a photo of it but I saw the bright light showing the new utility pole was up and ready to transfer the transformer, wires and cable to the new pole. That was a great sign for them getting power back on last night.
I reminded him that when the crew showed up at my house last May with a new pole, from the time they pulled up in front of the house to the time I had power restored after they installed a new pole ... was two hours. He liked that news. Sure enough it was about two hours after they started working, the family across the street along with 48 others had full power again.
With the house getting back to normal temps of 68°, as I don't like a hot house, the hounds and dogs moved into their normal nightly positions and went to sleep while I watched the football game.
This morning Watson was back on his couch to sleep while the snow, a wet and heavy snow, was constantly coming down. I know it is a wet and heavy snow by the snow I wiped off his his and Ava's back when they came inside. I am not paranoid of losing my power again BUT what will that 4"-6" of wet heavy snow on top of the ices that is still there, do to trees and power lines ... I don't want to think about the possibilities. It will finally get back up into the 30's next week and a high of 42° next Friday.
You can barely see the snow coming down but as I finish this post, it has been coming down continuously since 7am.
I did learn some lessons this week. I found out what I really needed and didn't have, like food in cans, boxes and packets. I know my sleeping bag will keep me warm no matter how cold it gets outside and I have the clothes I need to survive the daily temps WITHOUT using a noisy generator. I know the newer models run quieter but .... not interested.
My car gets into places others had a hard time, as I drove around town this week. I know the cost of water will take the place of the money saved not having power. That water has been running a thin stream to keep the pipes from freezing. So far so good on that not happening. I did notice when the power came back on my sump pump was running and making a weird noise.
No doubt it is frozen since it was turned off for four days in single digit temps at night. I turned off the fuse so it would not burn up the motor but the interesting thing is ... yes I was reading the fuse box right ... the sump pump is on the same fuse as the washing machine, dryer, bedroom lights and both bathroom lights/sockets. I can't wait now for warmer temps hoping what is frozen will melt and the pump will work and sound normal.
House cleaning, washing walls and doors inside is the plan of the day. I'll sit in the new indoor patio and watch the snow come down. I'll try to convince Ava she doesn't have to go outside every time I walk into the kitchen or great room. LOL
Another CFP game tonight ... another bag of beans is cooking in the crockpot since I had to throw out the last batch after the power went off. So beans and cornbread tonight unless I lose power and then it will be packets of tuna, some almonds, an apple, Hershey candy with almonds and maybe a Cliff Bar for desert.
The following photos were taken right before I posted this.
The hounds, dogs and I are good once again in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.
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