When we had arrived back home from Wisconsin after a 10 day sojourn to dog sit, we had the same bitterly cold weather, subzero temperatures as we had left in Madison. Subsequently we had a gradual warm spell with temperatures eventually reaching 60 degrees. The snow melted but the lake ice did not as it was more than 1/2 foot thick here on our pond. Then, February returned with upper teen nights and lower 30's days. As the date on the photo to the right shows, summer at the cottage is warm and pastoral. Lazy thoughts of a comfortable earlier time.As summer passes to Fall then to Winter, so too did our weather here in East Lansing change and with it, a bit of reminder of why we cling so tightly to electricity. Around 10:30 Wednesday night, in the middle of the North Carolina vs Duke basketball game, kaboom, and all was dark; dark within and dark outside. No street lights, no neighbor house lights, just plain dark. As it was near time for bed, we found our handy-dandy just-in-time flashlights and proceeded to make sure electrical appliances vulnerable to a power surge were turned off and we went to bed. No electrical power meant, no furnace and no furnace in the winter means that the inside temperature begins a slow but steady descent, more in an ascentotic slope towards the upper 50's; not bad for sleeping with a down comforter. Abruptly, at 6 AM the alarm horn: smoke, fire, intruders began to blast. It is still dark. I grabbed my flashlight, put on my terry cloth robe, slippers and headed first to the site of the horn, no shut off switch, then began investigating all rooms, garage, then proceeded to the basement. No dangerous sights or smells in the furnace room, bed room, bath, then into the circuit breaker storage room and alarm system hub. Up and then down again the stairs as I needed a screw driver to unlock the unit, and disconnect the battery (dated December 1993). The battery, no longer a spring chicken, could not hold its charge for long and was warning us of its impending failure. Electricity off and battery run down.
After the rude awakening, I crawled into bed, lying there and listened to our grandfather clock (mechanical) strike the quarter hours until time to get up at 7:30 AM to prepare to go to Care Free Clinic for my Thursday's volunteer Asthma Clinic. Shaving in cold water, no coffee, keeping the refrigerator closed to prevent spoilage of its contents, I dressed in the dark, with a mishmash of colors and styles, rousted Kathy out of bed for her own preparations for her volunteer Therapeutic Riding Program at the Beekman Center. Disconnecting the garage door from the electric garage door opening system, I backed out both cars, shut the garage door again and locked the interior kitchen door.
Throughout all this time, Kathy had called Consumer's Power and she was given times when the electricity would be restored. 7:06 AM Thursday came and went. Upon return from our volunteer endeavors in the mid and late afternoon, another phone call to CP and 7:08 PM was the time. We took our daily walk to see how the replacement of the electrical fire burnt telephone pole on Burcham was proceeding and talked to some CP employees who said at 6 PM that within the hour, power would be restored. We walked home and our indoor temperature was in the upper 50's still. We started the fireplace, lit candles and paraffin lamps, put 6 batteries into the portable boombox, ate a store bought dinner and listened to NPR. 8:30 PM another phone call to CP: now, "indeterminate time". The electricity and heat came on around 9:30 PM.
So, 23 plus hours of no electricity, we survived and made due. The picture of the winter scene is that looking out on the cottage island deck across the bay. Frozen water.
Good that we have heat again; started the full dishwasher before heading down to the TV, in time to see the ending of CSI.
Tonight we head to Munn Ice Arena to watch MSU against OSU hockey. Its nice that electricity helps keep ice in predictable desirable locations.
