If you note the exact time that these blog entries are posted, you will see a bit of a time discrepancy from when they are written to when they are posted. The reason is simple and I can’t believe I’m about to type this… (and I hope I never have to type this again…)
I’m living in a Federal Disaster Area.
Because of the intense amount of ice, sleet, freezing rain, and whatever other meteorological junk you want to label it, Northeastern Oklahoma is living in a realm of nightmares. The entire area is coated with ice. Travel is treacherous to say the least. At the time that I am writing this (from work) we are into 62+ hours without electricity. Estimates say that 120,000 households are without power. In our region alone, REC was reporting 20,000 homes without power. That is a lot of angry people out there, folks.
Any person who longs for the days of the frontier or Little House on the Prairie should have come and stayed with me for the last week. Reading by candlelight is next to impossible. If you keep the door shut, you have about 24 hours in your refrigerator… After 60, things start to get really gross. So we don’t have cold food and no heat on the electric stove and oven to cook with.
I’m doing some pretty white trash things to survive. It is like something out of a My Name is Earl episode. I heated up a chicken strip with the house’s propane heater and a fork, I’m keeping my water tank outside to keep it cold (that actually works pretty good!), and I made chili on our grill outside. I wish my camera wouldn’t have run out of batteries because it made for a pretty funny sight to see me in a hooded coat, gloves, and three layers of sweat pants cooking a pot of beef on the side burner.
Still, it could be worse. We have water. We have never lost that but certain places have lost power at their pumping stations. No water is getting pumped into the towers, hence… No water.
Last night, I took a shower by candlelight. Now, I’ve done this before but there was someone in the shower with me! Zing! But last night sucked. I wasn’t even going to dare to try to shave by candlelight, so the guys at work are starting to look like a bunch of hillbillies. I don’t want to even imagine what’s going on with the ladies…
Bedtime comes about 8:00 and wake up calls hit about 5:30. And after several days of this, I’m afraid my body is going to get used to it! Damn that!
So, if I have learned anything from this experience, it is to sympathize a little bit more with people like the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Still, this is weather that can kill people so I don’t want to make light of the situation.
Fingers crossed, the power gets turned back on today. But with high winds and bitter cold temperatures in the forecast, I’m thinking this could go on for days still…
Talking with some people at the power company, realistic estimates say that it could take three weeks to get everyone powered back up.Wish me luck. More updates later…
I’m living in a Federal Disaster Area.
Because of the intense amount of ice, sleet, freezing rain, and whatever other meteorological junk you want to label it, Northeastern Oklahoma is living in a realm of nightmares. The entire area is coated with ice. Travel is treacherous to say the least. At the time that I am writing this (from work) we are into 62+ hours without electricity. Estimates say that 120,000 households are without power. In our region alone, REC was reporting 20,000 homes without power. That is a lot of angry people out there, folks.
Any person who longs for the days of the frontier or Little House on the Prairie should have come and stayed with me for the last week. Reading by candlelight is next to impossible. If you keep the door shut, you have about 24 hours in your refrigerator… After 60, things start to get really gross. So we don’t have cold food and no heat on the electric stove and oven to cook with.
I’m doing some pretty white trash things to survive. It is like something out of a My Name is Earl episode. I heated up a chicken strip with the house’s propane heater and a fork, I’m keeping my water tank outside to keep it cold (that actually works pretty good!), and I made chili on our grill outside. I wish my camera wouldn’t have run out of batteries because it made for a pretty funny sight to see me in a hooded coat, gloves, and three layers of sweat pants cooking a pot of beef on the side burner.
Still, it could be worse. We have water. We have never lost that but certain places have lost power at their pumping stations. No water is getting pumped into the towers, hence… No water.
Last night, I took a shower by candlelight. Now, I’ve done this before but there was someone in the shower with me! Zing! But last night sucked. I wasn’t even going to dare to try to shave by candlelight, so the guys at work are starting to look like a bunch of hillbillies. I don’t want to even imagine what’s going on with the ladies…
Bedtime comes about 8:00 and wake up calls hit about 5:30. And after several days of this, I’m afraid my body is going to get used to it! Damn that!
So, if I have learned anything from this experience, it is to sympathize a little bit more with people like the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Still, this is weather that can kill people so I don’t want to make light of the situation.
Fingers crossed, the power gets turned back on today. But with high winds and bitter cold temperatures in the forecast, I’m thinking this could go on for days still…
Talking with some people at the power company, realistic estimates say that it could take three weeks to get everyone powered back up.Wish me luck. More updates later…
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