What else is there to do when you lose power during an ice storm other than blog? A quite tedious account of Your Faithful Servant roughing it while off of the grid during the ice and freezing rain event that hit the NC Piedmont on March 7 and 8, 2014.
3:45 AM Friday Morning. Lost power in the middle of a peaceful sleep. Awakened by the beeping of the fire and CO2 detectors as they transition from AC to battery power. I can hear that distinctive freezing rain sound, but that is about it. No crackling of fallen branches nor the sizzling pop of blowing transformers (those sounds were seared into my mind in 2002 when I lost 13 trees and power for four days). So I surmise this will be a baby storm and go back to sleep after grabbing an extra blanket out of the closet and setting the Android to wake me at 6:45. 62 degrees upstairs (which is the thermostat -programmed setting for the 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM window at Nedimyer Manor).
6:30 AM Friday Morning. Awakened again by the detectors, this time beeping as power is restored. I also observe at this point that the downstairs treadmill makes one helluva racket when it powers up. Check the driveway for damage – it and the rest of the property look fine. Branches are scattered all over the place and there is a really huge tree branch laying out back. But nothing came down on the house. Figure I’ll just work from home Friday - until I realize that the cable and Internet are down. Sigh. So I grab a shower. 58 degrees upstairs.
7:15 AM Friday Morning. Just about ready to leave the house for work when power goes out again. I chuckle at my good fortune of the power staying up long enough for me to get a hot shower in and get ready for work. I head out to the garage, jump in the Civic, and get to the top of my driveway when I discover that Hepowil Trace looks like a warzone. Completely impassable in either direction with branches blocking the road and just caked with ice. Looks like I need to wait it out here at home. Missed my window for morning coffee – damn! Check out the local news on the Samsung GS3 and it looks like the entire central part of the state from Orange County through the Triad was really hit hard. No way I am driving anywhere today. 60 degrees upstairs.
9:30 AM Friday Morning. At this point I have made the appropriate notifications to folks at work so they don’t think I am MIA. Kids check in with the old man to see if I am OK --- none of them have power so misery loves company I guess. Grab a bowl of Life (while the milk is still good). Hey Mikey – he likes it! Still jonesing for a cup of Joe. First World Problems. 57 degrees upstairs.
11:30 AM Friday Morning. Layers. Layers. Layers. I am outfitted for battle in Ice Storm 2014 with two long sleeve tees, a sweater, a UNCG Dad sweatshirt, my Pitt hoodie, blue jeans, two pairs of knee-high tubers, and a Washington Capital’s beanie. This approach works fine for the upper body, but legs and feet are already freezing. Briefly consider adding a pair of sweats underneath the jeans but instead just drag along a blanket to drape over the legs and feet wherever I go. Feel like some sort of pathetic, 51 year old Linus. 55 degrees upstairs.
1:30 PM Friday Afternoon. Still no power. Pass the time Friday reading a good chunk of Sanford Levinson’s Our Undemocratic Constitution from 2006.
This isn’t a book about constitutional interpretation on specific issues (unlike Mark Levin’s latest book, which I also have queued up to read. Joe Nedimyer – Fair and Balanced). In this almost eight year old book, Levinson covers the various structural systemic defects in the Constitution that contribute to our dysfunctional government.
Levinson has a pleasant conversation style in his prose and this is an easy to read book, but his call for a constitutional convention to remedy some or all of these structural issues strikes me as pretty naive. I just can’t imagine any scenarios where players in our existing system would knowingly give up power. Can anyone imagine a universe where small states would give up the unfair and undemocratic advantages they wield in Senate mal-apportionment or the absurdity of the Electoral College? Those states will never give up their “constitutional welfare”. Or can anyone imagine the Executive Branch would submit to corrections to the undemocratic powers they are currently afforded in the Presidential Veto, Executive Orders, or Signing Statements?
I just don’t see that happening – and that doesn’t even take into account dealing with the damaging deification of the Framers and of the Constitution itself, carried out proudly by so many today. Not going to happen. (Obligatory reverence to our brilliant framers, designers of the greatest system of government known to mankind. God Bless America.) 53 degrees upstairs.
3:00 PM Friday Afternoon. Piedmont Electric updated their website to indicate that this will be a “multi-day restoration”. Shit. 30K still without power in “The OC” and over 100K in the Triad. Life is all about tradeoffs. I have some puck lights, flashlights, and candles available, but I like to read by the natural light by the windows in my bedroom. Of course, this choice requires the blinds/window coverings to be pulled back, which results in cold permeating the master bedroom. Still raining and 35 degrees outside. Inside it is 51 degrees upstairs.
3:45 PM Friday Afternoon. Mother Nature calls (I know TMI). Usually, in preparation for these ice events, I would dutifully draw a tub full of cold water that could be used as, for lack of a better term, flush water. You see, I am on a well and the pump in the crawl space runs on electricity – no electricity, no running water. Truth be told, I sort of blew off the warning on Ice Storm 2014 - the weather forecast indicates that we will be hitting highs of 65-68 Saturday through Monday, so this is at most a temporary deal. But with the multi-day restoration announcement from PEMC, I am sort of regretting not having the peace-of-mind that the full tub would provide. I do however have three toilets and two of them (now) have a full tank of water. I refer to those two as grace flushes.
4:30 PM Friday Afternoon. Starting to get dark and with temperatures slated to dip under 30 degrees this evening, need to figure out a plan-of-attack for dinner. Do I brave the downed trees and icy roads in Orange and Durham counties and head out for grub or go with a stay-at-home option? I ponder the timeless question: What would Cody N™ do (WWCND)? I conclude that, first, my Dad would laugh at my candy-ass for all of this bitching and moaning about temperatures in the upper 40s. Secondly, Clovis F. Nedimyer would offer the classic guidance of “Cold ones are in the back, Rich”. Damn straight! While my ice-event preparation didn’t cover acquisition of firewood or flush water, I do have the essentials covered: a still-cold case of Miller Lite and a beautiful six-pack of Shiner Bock. I hit the Shiners – pretty hard actually. By 5:45, it is down to 49 degrees inside, but, for some reason, it doesn’t feel that cold anymore.
6:15 PM Friday Evening. Grub time. I have plenty of propane for the grill and two culinary options: marinated grilled chicken breast tenders and a side of salad or three grilled Italian sausages with potato salad. My better angel tells me “chicken”, but I go with the sausages. Since the chicken is frozen in the freezer and will probably survive until power is restored, I rationalize this poor diet choice by reasoning that it makes financial sense to salvage the sausages and potato salad in the fridge before they go bad. Yeah, right. 47 degrees inside – but my belly is full.
7:30 PM Friday Evening. Bed time.What the hell else is there to do in the dark? 46 degrees inside.
Around 11:00 PM Friday Evening. Power is restored. I am awakened by the ceiling light in my bedroom (which I apparently had on when power last went out). I am one of the luckier ones – son Chris in Greensboro wouldn’t get power back until Monday. Since it will take a while for the Upstairs Heat Pump to get the temperature back to a manageable level, I crawl back under the covers in my six or seven layers of clothes.
Saturday Morning – The Thaw. I rise around 7:30 AM and venture outside around 8:30. It is still damn cold, but the temperatures are already steadily rising above the freezing point. Ice is melting on the trees and on the ground and a brilliant Carolina Blue sky is blanketing my subdivision, St. Mary’s Woods. I grab the Canon and capture the scenery, dodging the falling ice and trying to keep from falling on my ass.
Saturday Afternoon – The Cleanup. By 10:30 AM on Saturday, it is already 54 degrees (on its way to 68) and a mess of a cleanup job needs to be completed. I still don’t have Internet or Cable, so there is really no excuse to not tackle it. Additionally, I really need to counter-balance the damage done by the Shiner Bocks and Italian Sausages from Friday. So I knock it out. The next four hours are spent sawing branches, dragging tree debris around with my wheelbarrow, and working the leaf blower to make some progress on the driveway and the area out front. (The backyard can wait for awhile.) The results are pleasing – I definitely had my “Jim Bibby working” (this is a phrase a friend and I use to refer to working up a good sweat, in honor of the Pittsburgh Pirate pitcher from the late 1970s).
