When the man promises to get an item in the mail, he’ll brave a blizzard to make it happen!
The kettle had just come to a boil yesterday morning when the lights went off, back on, back off… and remained off for 9 hours.
Given what was outside, we were not surprised.
The bigger surprise was that power was restored by late afternoon and we sent grateful thoughts to the poor technicians working under such dreadful conditions.
As we expected a lengthy pause, we decided to activate the generator. We had had a problem with it during a minor outage 4 years ago and after many un-returned phone calls, I located a repairman.
Grant and I had debated the idea of purchasing a new generator, the old one being generally unsatisfactory in a number of ways and the repairman worked for a company that sold them so we were ready to listen.
The details of our encounter are hazy now. But I remember that the man was extremely talkative about many subjects mainly nothing at all to with generators.
It is not possible for me to remain standing for prolonged periods and I used this excuse to abandon the conversation, leaving Grant to deal with it. Rather cowardly I know, but there was very little I could contribute in any case.
Eventually, the man did some tinkering with the generator, all the while continuing to talk and finally Grant said he had things to do and was going to leave the man to work.
We had been prepared to listen, but we had not bargained for this!
Grant came to report, looking a little glazed and said:
“I think he’s in a huff!”
Which was a pretty good guess because after a while the man came out of the garage, climbed in his truck and drove off without another word.
In due course we received a bill and that was that.
A year or so later an electrician did some work in the house and modified the control panel, adding some breakers that would transfer our power from mains to generator without blowing us up.
Since then, we have not lost power for more than a few minutes so yesterday we traipsed out to the garage feeling a little tentative.
Our generator is rather an antique. It even has a choke. No modern technology here. No doubt there is a generator out there now that can be set in motion on your iPhone, but not ours.
After a few attempts, it coughed and spluttered to life. The sound brought back memories, of childhood.
Our humble generator cannot activate more than the essentials which, we discovered, does not include the blasted leaky boiler.
Under normal circumstances, we can manage just fine without the boiler but our gas fire isn’t very effective without it’s blower which remained off.
We were hesitant to turn on the electric radiators, though the cats did manage to claim one.
Never mind. Extra clothing etc.
The well pump is connected to the generator because being water-less is a nuisance. However somewhere between the power being on and off and on, etc, the pump lost it’s pressure. So soon the taps were dry.
Not to worry. We have a very large supply in bottles. Grant believes in disaster preparedness, so for weeks every juice bottle that we emptied was filled and placed in the basement.
By using a long extension chord, I was able to get my PC going and had made about 4 entries when the cable company’s system failed, so that was that.
We spent a peaceful day reading and there is nothing wrong with that.
It is always good to go back to basics.
Cambodia 1957.
Later on, we were in Laos which was hotter. Being without power there was more of a problem because the candles melted in the middle and wouldn’t stand up straight.
Somewhere in my muddle there is a photograph. Next time I come across it I must leave it out.
Basics?
We were still so much better off than many.
Of course I didn’t spend all of yesterday reading…
On the patio the birds were deep in conversation
.
“You look a bit out of sorts. You alright?”
“No, I’m pissed off! I hate this white stuff.”
“And I hate crowds and busy-body doves.”
“That’s very rude!”
“I don’t like Lady Cardinals either!.”
“Now see here. I won’t have my wife insulted!”
“Keep your feathers on. Madame, I apologise for him
in his absence.” The offender flew off.
Meanwhile a lonely snowbird surveyed the driveway.
“Oh my! What a big white world!”
“For such a tiny little Junco!”
“Spring is in how many days?”
This is why they are called Snowbirds. You never see this many together at other times.
The squirrels had once more gone to ground.
4 pm. Still snowing.
It had become very windy and wet snow was plastered against window screens. The Sparrows were running out of options:(
Today was a bit messed up, with a dentist’s visit thrown in. I have lots more photographs that I will post tomorrow.
In the meantime here are some I took late yesterday.
At this rate you will have to convert the shed into a bird feeding station!
Have your birds, Carolyn, enough food to eat and lots of warm water? It looks beautiful but not for wildlife. I do hope that it will melt soon!
Joanna
Just beautiful Carolyn! Is this the most snow (at one time) you’ve had this winter? I won’t bother reading or anything else … I’ll make a steaming cup of hot chocolate and sit by the window all day! Without electricity – sounds like us here in SA (only difference is, here it happens every day 😬). Beautiful photos … looking forward to more snow pictures!
Yes. We both thought about our friends and family in South Africa.
the birds are so beautiful but i wonder if they are very cold at winter..
Many of our birds migrate south although some of those are back already and they seem to take the weather in stride.
There is a lot of wood around where you live. Have you never considered installing a wood-burning stove? I am now far too ’21st Century’ for power cuts. We get them occasionally, and if they last for longer than 30 minutes, I soon get fed up. My eyes are not good enough for reading in candlelight, so I have to resort to a Kindle, usually finding it doesn’t have much charge left.
Best wishes, Pete.
Actually there isn’t as much wood as you would think. Wood stoves work well but they are a lot of work if you use them all winter and they dry the air out. Nothing is perfect is it! I had a Kindle that always seemed to be on it’s last gasp. I can use my iPad but still prefer a book. Luckily we didn’t need candles. Grant has a re-chargeable torch, though.