When Heaven Freezes Over

On Sunday, shortly after we got home from church we were starting our laundry, eating lunch, doing the things we do on Sunday afternoon's when suddenly the power went off. A round of freezing rain had blown through the area and we knew a lot of people were already without power, but thus far ours had been on - and last year we never lost it, so we didn't really expect to lose ours. It came back on briefly a couple of times, but then all was dark and quiet - and began to get cold.

We napped on the couch for a couple of hours, but when it didn't come back we decided we needed to take the load of wet clothes to get dried at Britt's mom's parent's house (Nan & Popi - who still had power). After a couple of hours finishing that load of laundry we left there headed to find some dinner and then back home for the night.

We ate at Panera (whose site I won't link because I really don't care for the place, but my wife loves it, the food is good enough, but I can get lunch for less than $15 elsewhere thank you very much) where we found no less than 10 or 12 OCC students huddled up to stay warm, work on projects, and use the internet.

As we sat a table over from them we could tell three of them were discussing titles for a sermon they were writing for class. We stayed out of until one of them (who I have identified to the Executive Director of Student Development, just for fun) decided to call his "When Heaven Freezes Over". At that point my wife started laughing out loud. We chatted with them a while and went on our way. Lito, don't worry, Monte didn't seem too upset about the whole thing, he found the humor in it as well.

Our house was about 58-degrees when we got home, so we piled 4 extra blankets on the bed and climbed in. We did manage to watch a DVD that evening on Britt's laptop - thanks to a decent battery and a mobile power station my parents got me a while back that we could use to charge her laptop when it ran low. Staying warm that night wasn't a big problem...as long as we stayed in bed.

By the next morning it was down around 50-degrees in the house and my wife made it clear we weren't staying there anymore until the power returned. Yes, Ma'am. We decided to hit the Y - thinking we could workout and get a hot shower. The workout worked out, but JFY-South lost power before we finished upstairs, so we got booted and ended up at Britt's dad's parent's house (Grandpa Bob and Grandma Judy).

Grandpa Bob and Grandma Judy were nice enough to put us up most of the day Monday and Monday night (and would have kept us much longer if we had needed to). They had lost power only briefly early on and had it back sometime late Sunday or early Monday. We had a good time hanging out with them and Brittany's uncle Danny - also staying there due to a transformer (the electrical kind) laying in his front yard.

I got up early Tuesday, hit JFY-Downtown and then dropped by our house to drop off clothes and check on things. By this time we'd transferred our frozen stuff to Nan & Popi's and I had a large plastic container out on the back porch of the last few things out of the refrigerator. Thankfully the temps had hovered near freezing (this was the one upside of the cold weather during a power outage) so we weren't losing food. The house was somewhere below 50-degrees now, the dial hit it's limit around 48 and couldn't go any further down.

I was able to spend the day at work (which was quiet since the office was officially closed) getting contracts out and intern applicants evaluated. Britt spent Tuesday around town Christmas shopping.

Then came the call I'd been waiting for...Britt called to tell me that our power is back on. We were both relieved and ready to be back at home. Fifty hours without power really isn't that long, but felt like an eternity (especially the first 24). This experience certainly has made me realize how much I take things like electricity for granted. Shame on me.

There are still thousands around this area without power, some may not get it back for days. Please pray for all those still in the dark and cold or temporarily residing with friends and family. And pray for the crews working to restore power, that they would be kept safe as they work and be able to quickly get things put back together.