Electricity!
I have been thinking about a few different titles for this blog entry. Among the possibilities were titles such as...You Light Up My Life, Schoolhouse Rock's Electricity song, Stormy Weather, and submitted by my husband...Gone With the Wind.
We have in fact had some...Stormy Weather here recently. And because of that weather, our...Electricity, E-Lec-Tricity was Gone With the Wind for about 9 hours on Wednesday. I have personally been waiting for a good power outage for a while now. I was thinking about how cozy it would be to just have some family time without the many distractions of TV, Computer and etc. Wednesday at about 4:30 in the afternoon the power went out. Now living on the Oregon Coast as we do, power outages are frequent. Usually its more of a flickering thing, and maybe an hour or two without power. At 4:30 I was just thinking about getting ready to make dinner, the boys were playing on the plug and play (since I had turned the computer off due to the high winds). Only half of the boys had finished their allotted time playing video games, and it was getting dark. So the power goes out. We are not unprepared for such things, although in the future I would like to add a few things to our arsenal against power outages. It was still somewhat light outside, so we opened all the curtains, I cleared the table off, and set out our two small oil lamps, some candles and got our flashlights and batter operated push lights and lanterns out. I had been talking to D on the phone when the power cut, which also cut our call due to the fact that all we had was a cordless phone that needs electricity to run on. (I say HAD, because I went out the next day and bought a corded phone to use in such situations in the future.)
The boys immediately began complaining that they didn't get to finish their time, that they were bored, and that they were afraid of the dark. I got out the playdoh, some paper plates for them to work the playdoh on, placed the oil lamps and some candles in the middle of the table and lit them. This occupied the boys for half an hour or so, until D came home from work because they didn't have power there either. A year ago we would have been cooking our food outside in the wind on our camp stove, but a while back my Dad gave us a single burner stove that runs on cans of butane, and can be safely used inside. Thank you Dad! The first thing I used our lovely burner for was to make two batches of popcorn with our Whirley Pop Stovetop Popper. Luckily we had some margarine out of the fridge, because I didn't know how long the power was going to be out, so we had a no opening the fridge rule so as to keep it as cold in the fridge as possible. We sat around the table and ate our popcorn, then tried to decide what to have for dinner. My original dinner plans involved several things from the fridge, so we cancelled that and opted for soup. The boys ate Tomato Soup (also cooked on our burner) and D and I had some Bear Creek Potato soup. After that we spent pretty much the rest of the evening trying to find ways to entertain the boys. There was much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth by some of them, and many heartfelt and fervent prayers for the power to be restored, and then more tears when the power didn't come back on as soon as they said "Amen". D and some of the boys did do a puzzle by the faint glow of our oil lamps (which are more like glorified candles and don't give off much light). I appeased our oldest (and the most weepy and upset as he was the only one that didn't get to do at least part of his game time) by sharing the glow of my flashlight while I read. I made a call on the cell phone to check on the outage and found out that over 15,000 customers of Pacific Power were out of power. A couple of hours later, it was down to 12,200, then eventually 10,500, and finally around bed time it was down to somewhere around 8,000. We took the boys for a drive to tire them out, and to see the hopeful glow of lights from the next town over, that had previously been without power also. Then we went home where the boys went to bed (although scared to not have their hall light on like they usually do) and I finished the book I was reading by lantern light since I was getting tired of winding our LED wind-up flashlight (supposed to be good for "up to" 45 minutes of light, but really only good for 5 to 10 before you have to wind it again). We made some hot cocoa on our trusty burner, and fired up the Kerosene heater. The power was restored somewhere around 1 a.m. School was cancelled for the next day, which I thought was weird since we had power by then. The boys enjoyed a day off of school, and I have been thinking about how to better handle a power outage in the future.
I find it sad that our boys were so consumed by their need for electricity. They even tried to get us to set up Grandpa's DVD player with two screens (that we will be returning this weekend) in the van so they could have their DVD viewing and plug and play time. What I had looked forward to as cozy family time turned into a nightmare of whining, and irritation. I think that we should have some no power weekends every so often and just keep everything off for a day, just to get those kids off of their power kick. If we had to go more than an evening without power, I think they would have a nervous breakdown.
Here is my list of things I would like for future power outages...some are doable, and some are not so much so.
Real oil lamps...with a wide wick, so that they actually light up a good area.
A generator for the Fridge and Freezer so that we don't have to worry about spoilage (haha...like we will ever get one)
Checkers made with LED lights inside each one, so that you can see the game, and a glow in the dark board. (Someone invent that will you?)
One of those car battery jumpstarters that also has a plug and a light on it, so we could plug in a boom box or something and have some music (see, I am addicted to power also)
A fireplace (again...not affordable, but it would be oh so nice, and I could cook dutch oven in it as well, and we could have smores!) Actually what I want is a Soapstone Fireplace/Heater with a built in bakeoven...if anyone wants to give me about $10,000 to $15,000 for one, just let me know. Soapstone heaters stay warm after just a couple of hours of wood burning, and they retain the heat and keep you toasty all day. And the Bakeoven would just be cool, pizza anyone?
Really, we have all the essentials covered. We have light sources, we have a heat source (even though the kerosene can be smelly) and we have a way to cook. Our hot water heater is a gas one, so we would still have hot showers, (unfortunately our gas furnace needs electricity to turn on). All in all we have the things we need the most. Hopefully next time we will be able to focus more on a good family time and less on the woes of not having the electricity.
In closing, I will part with a poem from my high school literary publication of Thistledown.
Ode to a lightbulb. (originally written by...me)
Ode to a lightbulb
All shiny and bright
I love him a lot
'Cause he give me light.
I have been thinking about a few different titles for this blog entry. Among the possibilities were titles such as...You Light Up My Life, Schoolhouse Rock's Electricity song, Stormy Weather, and submitted by my husband...Gone With the Wind.
We have in fact had some...Stormy Weather here recently. And because of that weather, our...Electricity, E-Lec-Tricity was Gone With the Wind for about 9 hours on Wednesday. I have personally been waiting for a good power outage for a while now. I was thinking about how cozy it would be to just have some family time without the many distractions of TV, Computer and etc. Wednesday at about 4:30 in the afternoon the power went out. Now living on the Oregon Coast as we do, power outages are frequent. Usually its more of a flickering thing, and maybe an hour or two without power. At 4:30 I was just thinking about getting ready to make dinner, the boys were playing on the plug and play (since I had turned the computer off due to the high winds). Only half of the boys had finished their allotted time playing video games, and it was getting dark. So the power goes out. We are not unprepared for such things, although in the future I would like to add a few things to our arsenal against power outages. It was still somewhat light outside, so we opened all the curtains, I cleared the table off, and set out our two small oil lamps, some candles and got our flashlights and batter operated push lights and lanterns out. I had been talking to D on the phone when the power cut, which also cut our call due to the fact that all we had was a cordless phone that needs electricity to run on. (I say HAD, because I went out the next day and bought a corded phone to use in such situations in the future.)
The boys immediately began complaining that they didn't get to finish their time, that they were bored, and that they were afraid of the dark. I got out the playdoh, some paper plates for them to work the playdoh on, placed the oil lamps and some candles in the middle of the table and lit them. This occupied the boys for half an hour or so, until D came home from work because they didn't have power there either. A year ago we would have been cooking our food outside in the wind on our camp stove, but a while back my Dad gave us a single burner stove that runs on cans of butane, and can be safely used inside. Thank you Dad! The first thing I used our lovely burner for was to make two batches of popcorn with our Whirley Pop Stovetop Popper. Luckily we had some margarine out of the fridge, because I didn't know how long the power was going to be out, so we had a no opening the fridge rule so as to keep it as cold in the fridge as possible. We sat around the table and ate our popcorn, then tried to decide what to have for dinner. My original dinner plans involved several things from the fridge, so we cancelled that and opted for soup. The boys ate Tomato Soup (also cooked on our burner) and D and I had some Bear Creek Potato soup. After that we spent pretty much the rest of the evening trying to find ways to entertain the boys. There was much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth by some of them, and many heartfelt and fervent prayers for the power to be restored, and then more tears when the power didn't come back on as soon as they said "Amen". D and some of the boys did do a puzzle by the faint glow of our oil lamps (which are more like glorified candles and don't give off much light). I appeased our oldest (and the most weepy and upset as he was the only one that didn't get to do at least part of his game time) by sharing the glow of my flashlight while I read. I made a call on the cell phone to check on the outage and found out that over 15,000 customers of Pacific Power were out of power. A couple of hours later, it was down to 12,200, then eventually 10,500, and finally around bed time it was down to somewhere around 8,000. We took the boys for a drive to tire them out, and to see the hopeful glow of lights from the next town over, that had previously been without power also. Then we went home where the boys went to bed (although scared to not have their hall light on like they usually do) and I finished the book I was reading by lantern light since I was getting tired of winding our LED wind-up flashlight (supposed to be good for "up to" 45 minutes of light, but really only good for 5 to 10 before you have to wind it again). We made some hot cocoa on our trusty burner, and fired up the Kerosene heater. The power was restored somewhere around 1 a.m. School was cancelled for the next day, which I thought was weird since we had power by then. The boys enjoyed a day off of school, and I have been thinking about how to better handle a power outage in the future.
I find it sad that our boys were so consumed by their need for electricity. They even tried to get us to set up Grandpa's DVD player with two screens (that we will be returning this weekend) in the van so they could have their DVD viewing and plug and play time. What I had looked forward to as cozy family time turned into a nightmare of whining, and irritation. I think that we should have some no power weekends every so often and just keep everything off for a day, just to get those kids off of their power kick. If we had to go more than an evening without power, I think they would have a nervous breakdown.
Here is my list of things I would like for future power outages...some are doable, and some are not so much so.
Real oil lamps...with a wide wick, so that they actually light up a good area.
A generator for the Fridge and Freezer so that we don't have to worry about spoilage (haha...like we will ever get one)
Checkers made with LED lights inside each one, so that you can see the game, and a glow in the dark board. (Someone invent that will you?)
One of those car battery jumpstarters that also has a plug and a light on it, so we could plug in a boom box or something and have some music (see, I am addicted to power also)
A fireplace (again...not affordable, but it would be oh so nice, and I could cook dutch oven in it as well, and we could have smores!) Actually what I want is a Soapstone Fireplace/Heater with a built in bakeoven...if anyone wants to give me about $10,000 to $15,000 for one, just let me know. Soapstone heaters stay warm after just a couple of hours of wood burning, and they retain the heat and keep you toasty all day. And the Bakeoven would just be cool, pizza anyone?
Really, we have all the essentials covered. We have light sources, we have a heat source (even though the kerosene can be smelly) and we have a way to cook. Our hot water heater is a gas one, so we would still have hot showers, (unfortunately our gas furnace needs electricity to turn on). All in all we have the things we need the most. Hopefully next time we will be able to focus more on a good family time and less on the woes of not having the electricity.
In closing, I will part with a poem from my high school literary publication of Thistledown.
Ode to a lightbulb. (originally written by...me)
Ode to a lightbulb
All shiny and bright
I love him a lot
'Cause he give me light.
2 comments:
I love reading your blog Heather. I'm sorry to hear your power went out for so long this week. You have 5 boys and I only have 2 girls, I don't envy you at all trying to keep them entertained. Good luck on the next power outage and I'll start raising money for that fireplace so you can cook some great dutch oven meals. ;)
Heidi
I don't know if this is the brightest (ha, ha) idea at your house, but you could use tea lights for checkers - it'd light up the board, too.
It's as close as I"m going to get to inventing anything.
When we voluntarily turned our power off a few months ago (so the house wouldn't burn down), Garrett and I played Risk by headlamp. It was one of the best dates ever!
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