Trail of Job, (con't)
Day One: We have an ice storm. We have only about one inch of snow. No Big deal. But all the trees are full of ice and get real heavy. About 10pm I lose electricity after it flicking twice. I'm told it will be a 7 to 8 hour wait. About usual.
Day Two: I call electric company and report the outage. In the early afternoon I realize that trees from the neighbor's yard have fallen and out electric line are one the ground. I call the electric company again and report lines down which is considered an electrvical emergency. I'm told it will be a 20-24 hour wait will is unusual.
Day Three: The electric company tree cutters came yesterday and cut the trees from the neightbors yard which fell on our line and took out our electricity. My new tenants next door called the electric company after I asked them too after they notice all the lines were down. Their electricity was restore about 10:30pm. My was not.
Sherri and Jimmie escaped to Sherri's mother's house. I am alone here. The first night I had no heat but the house cooled down slowly. I went to bed with the temp about 56'. Lots of candles for light. By dat three my thermometer bottoms out at 50' so I assume the inside of my house is somewhere in the 40's. I load up candles in my bedroom so I can read.
My garage door will not open w/o electricity. My cell phone is dying. I leave a message on my cell phone to let callers know the situation. I use my last 3 minutes of cell hone time to order a pizze from Pizza Hut. I bribe the delivery boy to get me cigs and pay him $10 to bring some to me.
Day 4: I have no heat. I have no food. I have food defrosting in my freezer but no way to cook it. I give it to neighbors. My house is still under 50'. I have no cell phone as I have no way of recharging it. I have no way to get my truck out of the garage as all I have is an electric garage door opener. I curl up on the sofa and I listen to the wind howl outside. I assume it is getting colder. I am pissed that my neighbors have electricity and I dont'
Sheri and Jimmie come home from her mother's house to get clean chothers. I catch them and go outside. I look dumbfounded. It's warm outside. It's lik 70' outside. WTF????? I go inside and begin opeing my windows to let the warm breeze inside. I use the warm weather to walk to QT to get some cigarettes and booze. I walk home, my back hurting horribly. My cell phone is dead.
I walk up to a neighbors house. They are partying outside on the porch. I ask if they have electricity. They do. They are shocked that I don't. I ask them to recharge my cell phone. We talk on their porch. The tenant, Kera, there just started working for CCL. She tells me about recently Tyson coming out of her garage and tells her he "is escaping" and she tells me that both Tyson and Melissa are big methheads. I tell her to watch her back at CCL. While cleaning out her apt I found a big box of bed pads from CCL, some I recognized because they were chewed by Tammy. I didn't know if they were stolen of given to her when the company ordered new bedpads. I've always given Melissa the benefit of the doubt until she disappeared w/o a trace with no notice, etc and left my apt trashed and damaged as only Tyson can do.
While we were talking outside, two Westar Energy trucks drove by the house and we began screaming and waving our arms. One truck turned the corner, the other made a U and came back. We asked him if he was here to fix my electricity and he said yes. They determined the while some immediate trees had been cut down, trees on the other side of the neighbors yard had not and that is what was holding up rehooking me up. Then the noticed that there was a pole just in front of my new tenants house and they could bring my line there which was a clear shot. They told me that they needed to go get wire and something to eat, but they'd be back and hook me up tonight.
At about 10:30 pm my electricity came back on and I now have heat and satelite TV and lamps to read by. I'm keeping my thermostat at 64 degrees as I have learned that I can survive easily at 58'. Tomorrow I can replentish my food supply.
It's been interesting being w/o power for four days. At first I looked forward to doing a lot of meditation because I didn't expect this to last for over a day. After 3 days I was sick of meditating and reading by candlelight. I realized there waw a balance between meditation and activity.
I have zero idea why I have internet service. I have to tell you, my cable wires were buried underneath the electrical wires. I saw Cox Cable here today and found out they were here to hook up a neighbor, my new tenants. I told them to take their time doing mine, "after all,. I have no electricity." And yet for some reason I can get online tonight.
Praise God.