You know what they say…”if you want to hear the gods laugh, tell them your plans.” This whole week is pretty much a lost cause, and if I was backlogged before, I’m really behind now. I shouldn’t complain, though: I’m luckier than a lot of people.
My electrical power was restored at 6:05 p.m. on Sunday, after 62 hours and 25 minutes. National Grid told me that they expected power to be back on by 8:00 p.m., but they also said that for Winchendon, where my dad lives, which was an optimistic forecast to say the least. At sunset, I had lit the lamps and lanterns and brought in more firewood, and was settled for another cold, dark night, reading more of one of the review books I needed to finish. Despite the lack of power, I’d been trying to use my time as constructively as possible, and the Coleman lantern provided bright enough light to get a lot done. I did a bunch of tasks and chores on Friday, organizing and filing and putting things away, and I’d found boxes and wrapped all the Christmas presents. On Saturday, I set myself to reading review books, finished a long one and started the next one in the stack. But the lack of electrical power was getting pretty old.
My dad was having a miserable time trying to tough it out in his house and I worried much more about him than I did about myself. He only had an inefficient, typical living room fireplace, for a house twice as big as mine. He has a well, so he didn’t have any water. He didn’t have anything for light except candles and flashlights. He apparently has a camp stove of some kind, but he’d never used it and couldn’t figure out how to get it assembled. (These things never go well if you wait until you have a crisis.) His hot water heater, stove, and everything else are all electric. He was sleeping on the floor in front of the fireplace and freezing.
On Sunday he went to see some friends, and then he and his friend Ty drove to Leominster to find a sports bar with power to watch the Patriots game. He told me that if the power wasn’t on by that evening, he’d come down and crash with me. He arrived rather unexpectedly around 8:00 p.m. and brought nothing with him but his bathrobe! I bunked him down on the futon in the front room. The next day he went up and packed more things, but he couldn’t find his cat anywhere–Sylvester is outside and wouldn’t come in. So dad has been here since Sunday night, which means I really can’t get back to my own routines. I told dad to bring his computer with him (a desktop, but with my house crammed with computer components, all he needed to bring was the box and power cord), and I set it up in the front room. So, he’s been working on this huge genealogy file that he’d been sweating over all week, and wanted desperately to continue with. Today I even connected his computer to my router so he can get online and read his e-mail.
Of course, the weather is sucky today: gloomy, temps below freezing, two inches of snow and more ice on top of the snow. To make it worse, dad and I have tickets to a performance in Worcester on Friday and right now the forecast for Friday night is an even bigger snow storm–6 to 10 inches! So I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. I guess we’ll have to see. They’re expensive tickets to just blow off–but I don’t know if they’re worth risking life and limb. Worcester is a long drive for us.
Dad went up to his house today, looking for Sylvester. He found tracks in the snow but no cat. He’s worrying about Sylvester a lot. 🙁 However, National Grid’s website is now indicating an estimated time for power to be fully restored up there. They keep changing it, but today is the first time since last Friday that they haven’t just said “TBD” (to be determined). Dad said there had been progress on his road today–the lines had been entirely cleared of branches and fallen trees, and no lines appear to be down, as far as he can see. So we may be seeing the end of the tunnel at last. He’s going to be SO glad to get back home! I’m trying to make him as comfortable and welcome as I can, but dad is one of those retirees who has no difficulty keeping himself busy with projects around the house and stuff he volunteers for. He’s very self-motivated and hates it when his plans are all disrupted. I’m just exactly like him. *wry smile*
So that’s the latest report from the Federal Disaster Area! (We’re supposed to be getting FEMA money–ha!) Varnum Brook School has an emergency shelter set up here in my town, and there might be others. Most schools in this area are still closed. The local school district, North Middlesex Regional, won’t open again until after the holidays, January 5th! They’ve closed down for the year! And a lot of school districts are doing that. They’d have been closing on the 23rd for holiday break anyway, and the high school still doesn’t have power, AFAIK. I don’t know how they’ll work out their mandatory 180 days–cut a spring vacation week, run into July, apply for a waiver? We’ll see!
People around here are…tense. With many people still out of power, and the schools closed, and all this happening so close to the holidays…it’s tense. Going out to run errands is not fun. 🙁 Dad is getting testy, too, although he’d be happier if he could have found Sylvester and brought him down here, too, the little nuisance.