Since we have been home with the power back on, I have done 8 loads of laundry, 2 loads of dishes, played about 17 games on the Wii, and spent hours working on Michael's 5 year video montage. I'm calmer now, and looking back, I realize how whiny I was over the 73 hours we didn't have power. I know there are people in Haiti who may never have power again, and there are people sleeping in the street, and there are people who could not have their family and friends take them in.
But still, it was really damn cold. It was 41 degrees in my house. 41 degrees. Not to mention the fact that Doug kept having to come home from where we were staying to check on our roof, which is leaking, and the roads are bad, still, really bad here, and then when we moved from my best friend's to my parents, my parents lost power.
Still, there were good times through it all too. Like watching my almost 5 year old play with my best friend's 2 year old twins. And Amy and I texting, just wishing one of use had power so we could help each other out. And cheering for the Pepco crew who finally restored our power, with the people I still think of as my new neighbors.
I by nature am not a selfish person. I am the opposite of selfish. I will do anything for anyone, and have gotten hurt on more than one occasion when that is not returned. But this time, when my son and husband were freezing, my first instinct was not to think of others, but to think of me and my little family and our needs. Of the food that was spoiling in our fridge and how exactly we were going to sleep and not die of hypothermia. And no, it might not have been that bad, but at times, it seemed like it.
And now, that we are home and safe and dry and warm, and every 5 minutes I say a little prayer like, please stay on, please stay, please stay on, it seems like a distant far off dream.
And Doug let me sleep until 10 today.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
doug is a good man. plus he has you. that makes me good AND lucky.
You were not whining. I think you managed yourself very well. The rest of us had power AND internet and were way more over the top. Just happy to hear that you guys are home and taken care of!
When life is disrupted to the degree that yours was you have the right to vent about it… especially on your own blog. Unfortunately there have been people out there saying ridiculous things like, “The Government’s doing more for people in Haiti than for me.” And that’s just asinine. But it doesn’t mean we can’t gripe when the roof is leaking and the house is 40 degrees and you’re living in a home that’s not your own.
Yay for power and heat and YAY for your husband for letting you sleep in today! Glad you are safe and warm!
Um, yeah. I think a wee bit of complaining, grousing, complaining, whining and griping was in order.
There will always be someone who has it worse off than us rich folk living high on the hog in the US of A. That is a fact of life. It does not mean that our own over-polluted lives do not get hard sometimes.
Having the power go out is really bad. There are few things that upset me as much as that. It just flat out sucks. And you know what? I don’t think it has to be a competition of who is suffering the most. You don’t have to be the hardest hit to earn the right to complain. You had an honestly sucky situation. You’re allowed.
Did the 41-degree temps save any of your fridge food?
Damn skippy you had a right to complain! Being without power is hard in the best weather, but in freezing cold, or in our case usually burning heat, that’s worse than sucky! I tell you, if I’d had a blog at the time when we went without power in 2004 (the year we had 3-4 hurricanes back to back) I’d have been complaining up a storm from my inlaws where we were using their generator.
And there will always be someone worse off. Doesn’t take away your right to be upset at what’s happening to you.
So glad you got the power back on faster than they thought. I can’t imagine being in that cold with no heat. Frightening!