Unexpected Joy: Ice Storm

At 3:30 Friday morning (12-12-08) I was awakened by a crash as the house shook. It took me a while to realize that an external force had jarred my rest and not a bad dream. As I have that thought, the power went out. Ugh! Jessica comes down stairs to investigate the racket.

I recovered the flashlight from it's usual location, headed to the file cabinet for the CMP folder to get the emergency response number..........busy. Tried the number again.......busy. Then I remembered the house shook! Something HIT the house? Looking out the front door, I could see a tree trunk laying perpendicular to the building. I bundled up and headed out to survey the damage. The neighbor's tree still had many limbs weighing heavily on the power lines. The roof was bare where the largest top branch of the their tree hit the roof before it rolled down to the ground. The spot it hit was directly over my daughter's bed. "Thank you" I said out loud. This could have been much worse, we are both safe, the roof is intact with no signs of leaking. It's cold, I'm going inside now.

The fire department came to check out the power line situation, Jessica went back to bed. Then the waiting. Waiting to hear something about when power could be restored. Daylight and with no news, it's time to get ready for the worse. We could be without power for a few days. I have to get the generator hooked up. No gas. Neighbor says 7-11 is the only place open and the line is going on forever. No choice. We only had a small space heater running, the temperature in the house reaches 60 degrees by 4pm, not bad but someone told me a few days ago that it's going to get very cold. The heat won't last. There is a lot to consider. Do I abandon the house and take Jessica someplace safer? Family and friends are close enough. Then I remember I have a fireplace, ha! No wood. Thank God for cell phones, wood is delivered. Things are looking up! It just gets better from here.

As luck would have it, I made a big pot of chicken stew the day before! Woohoo! Hot soup in the crock pot for dinner. The fireplace stoked for heat now so let's plug in a lamp, the Christmas tree, crock pot, cell phone charger and a portable DVD player! We are in business and camping out watching movies.

Waking up every hour to add 2 logs to the fire and every 6 hours to replenish the gas in the generator was a small inconvenience to receive the gratitude, contentment and joy that was given me for sharing that night with my daughter the way we did.