Well now, THAT sucked.

[SusanH1970]

I'm sure you've all heard of the freak snowstorm that hit New England. Our town got hit ridiculously hard - 5 times worse than Hurricane Irene, which left us without power for 5 days. Finally got power tonight after NINE days.

Luckily, we do have a generator, and my husband was able to McGuyver it this time to also power our furnace and well pump, so we had heat and hot water for the majority. The first two days we had a bit of power (lights, microwave oven, fridge/freezer) due to the genny, but Bless his heart for figuring out the rest after that. Before he hooked the furnace up our house got down to 58 degrees F. I've got friends who don't have a generator and their houses have gotten as low as 42! We had no water for two days, and some are still without water OR heat.

Full power finally came on for us late this afternoon, and parts of our town are STILL out. Wednesday is the projected day for 100% restoration. My heart goes out to those without any relief. Still, having the generator: it cost us about $500 USD in gasoline to run it.

Anyway.... I'm back to annoy all you fine people! Hope you haven't missed me too much. I'm sure Sime was hoping I was gone for good, LOL.

[NgaiHill]

Welcome back Susan, sounds like it was a lot of snow, it even made the news over here!
Not fun being without power for days, especially if your heating relies on the power.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by NgaiHill

Welcome back Susan, sounds like it was a lot of snow, it even made the news over here!
Not fun being without power for days, especially if your heating relies on the power.

Thanks so much, Lisa. It really wasn't that MUCH snow...only about 8 or 9 inches which is nothing for us (last year we had storms that piled up 36" and more) - but the fact that it came so early and the trees still had so many leaves is what did us in. The snow weighed down the branches and snapped power lines all over the area. It was just a mess. SO many downed trees and large branches - it's still not completely cleaned up. School was cancelled for the whole week and is now just opening up again but some buses will be detouring because not all streets are clear yet.

We lost the first week of school in September and now another week. These poor kids are going to be in school till July!

[ArmySoldier777]

Glad to see you're back Susan. That's horrible about the power outtage up there. Good to hear that you managed to get your power back and that you atleast had the gen to get by for awhile. Almost makes me feel bad that it's supposed to be 70 here tomorrow in NC and i'll be out cruising on the motorcycle lol.

As far as the kids being in school til July. I can't really feel sorry for them lol, because someday they'll wish they were kids again and school was the biggest thing you had to deal with in life lol.


David

[SwissJon]

Blimey.. Such a lot of fuss for a few snowflakes.. Are you sure you aren't in "England" rather than "New England"?? The weather fairy must have got lost.

Welcome back

[RLucas]

Damn! $500.00 in gas? I am sure the power company will offset your bill to wash that out. haha!
I figure with that much time with the power out, it could go one of two ways. A home reenactment of The Shining, or a new family member by mid Summer.
It's good to see you back, and I am glad y'all got through it.

I don't know what we would do? We have no generator, but we do have a fireplace. Although, that would still leave us with no running water.

[autofocus]

As fellow Connecticut-ers, pretty much ditto Susan's post. Our son, being in the ag business, came to the rescue with one of his John Deere tractors and a heavy duty farm grade generator. (25000 watts) This thing runs off the PTO of the tractor, but boy, was this tractor fuel thirsty. It probably sucked 3-4 gallons of diesel fuel per hour at around $3.85 per gallon. We were not able to put this to use for about 3 days with no power, however, as we live on a dead end street that had 5 trees down, with some laying on power lines. Trapped...no way in, and no way out. Me, along with some of our neighbors gave up waiting for the town to come in to clear the road...brandishing our chain saws, we took the risks of clearing the road ourselves. In the first 3 days without power, our house temp got down to 47 degrees F. It took nearly 14 hours of the generator running to bring the house back to a more comfortable low 60's. $$$. Our property is surrounded by huge trees, and it was real scary listening all night to the sound of trees cracking and crashing to the ground around us. While laying in bed, two large branches hit our roof..scared the sh!t out of me..luckily, thank God, no real damage to the house. We did lose our favorite tree, however. A 15 year old Japanese Maple split right down the middle. Nine days later, much food lost in the freezer, we finally got our power back last night. It's amazing what you take for granted everyday, and how horrible it is when you lose some of these conveniences. Our house being fully dependent on electric power means no water, no cooking, no heat...and NO MORNING COFFEE when the power goes out. Amazing what a little wet snow can do to disrupt your "normal" life.

[SusanH1970]

Glad you're back to normal too, Vinnie! Well, as normal as YOU can be.

[zona5101]

If there aren't any pictures, how do we know you were trapped in a snowtorm-power outage??



Seriously, glad you and yours and Vinnie and his are ok. Another one of life's adventures, aye?

[SusanH1970]

LOL Bruce. YOU try keeping three bored kids happy and occupied during a power outage and still find time for yourself!