...and all through my parent's house. No heat was flowing, not even the power. (I know, I know. But you try and rhyme something with house that describes electricity)
Last week my parents were without power from Friday morning at 6am till about 3pm Monday afternoon. This presented a few problems out of the typical no power issues. For one, the battery backup for their sump pump decided to fail on them, leaving them to bail our water by hand. My dad claims to have carried over 500 gallons of water out of the basement, in an effort to keep it all from flooding. The second problem was the fact that temperatures were in the single digits, and the high winds didn't help to make things warmer. So they were then stuck with having to keep their pipes from freezing in the house, as well as keeping themselves warm. Thankfully my Grandpa lived nearby and had power, so they could use that as a retreat/shower facility/food storage/sanity station.
Since there were over 120,000 people without power in Fort Wayne at the peak time, you can imagine that anything that rhymed with generator or portable heat source was hard to find. That Saturday we happened to be in Muncie with the Taylor clan, so I made a stop by a big name hardware store to pick up a portable heater with four 1 lb propane bottles. (we had to use the small ones in order to take the heater inside. If you use the bigger tanks, like on a grill, you would need to keep everything outside.) My dad then took the hour plus drive to come down and get the supplies as he was desperate to get some heat in the house.
Well, this plan worked out great...until Sunday morning hit. They were still without power and quickly running out of propane. To make matters worse, the power company wasn't planning to get the power on till Wednesday evening at the latest. My dad got a tip from an inside source that a special shipment of heaters and fuel was being sent to a nearby store. So he waited in line for 2 hours in hopes to get more tanks. Since I was back in Indy by this time, I made a trip to our stores and found shelves and shleves of this propane gold that everyone up north was desiring. Being the good son I am, I bought two full cases and planned to make the transfer Monday evening when my parents came down to get Carolyn from the airport.
That transfer would have worked perfectly if it wasn't for the fact that by 5am Monday morning, they were already on their last tanks and the temperatures weren't getting any warmer. So at 6:30 am I got a call saying my fearless father was on his way down to Indy to get the propane I bought since they wouldn't be able to wait until later that night. Luckily the power came back on that afternoon, well before the 6 pm Wednesday deadline they received. Needless to say my mom was slightly excited.
Another power loss story occurred a week earlier at my office. Although not as severe as my parents story, our office was without power for about an hour and half one morning. Seeing as how about 96% of the things I had to do that morning relied on the use of a computer, I was forced to sit around with everyone else around me and contemplate life. I did actually make an effort to think of something to do that didn't require a computer. Only problem was, in order to work on it the old fashion way, I would need to get it off the computer first (see first problem). Even when the power came back on, we were still without an internet connection for most of the day. This tends to make it hard to complete two deadlines when you aren't able to receive information from outside sources.
Moral of today's stories;
We always seem to take advantage of life's simple pleasures until we are forced to survive without them. Be it power, heat, or the new space age technology we call the internet. So take a moment today to think about those simple things you are most thankful for, remember those that may not be as fortunate, and start working on your bailout plan so you aren't stuck in the bathroom when the power goes out.
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