in the dark

i realize that i am piling up a lot of things that i keep saying i'm going to tell you about, and really and truly, i am. it's better if you can see pictures.

so there's a thing about an aborted camping trip i'm not telling you about yet, but right now i want to tell you that when i got HOME from that, my neighborhood was ominously dark. there's a look to an area when the power has been out for some time and it's not coming on real soon.

so i went to bed in the dark and woke up in the dark with the house twenty degrees colder and the first thing i did was get in the car and go for a ride because i wasn't going to face the day at my house until the sun came up.

then i came home and worked on the projects at hand: no heat, no running water, no light.

headlamp: check.
fireplace: check.

i mostly don't burn a fire, because it's not so good with my asthma. my mom suggests periodically that i get rid of the firewood on my porch that i NEVER USE, but i keep telling her that one day the power will go out for more than a few hours and i will need to use it.

welcome to one day, as someone i know said.

snow: check.

because while i have three gallons of drinking water in jugs, which is enough water to drink for a day or two, it's not enough to wash anything or flush a toilet.

not if i also want to drink.

so i start the work of gathering snow outside, bringing it in, and melting it.

in only four hours i have nearly enough to flush a toilet. and then somewhere around one in the afternoon, just as i was hearing the news that the power company had NO IDEA what day my power might come on again which is reasonable because people in huntington have been waiting since tuesday, my power came on.

so i had a little domestic adventure in self-sufficiency, a cozy fire, and watered the houseplants.

it's still a little chilly in the house while the heat makes up for the outage.

the power crews are still working 24 hours. five hundred people in huntington still don't have power.

huntington, hinesburg, fletcher, underhill.

across the state the number of power outages has fallen under ten thousand for the first time since tuesday.

EDIT to add:  shortly after writing, this, my power went out again and is expected to be out at least until noon.

more adventures.

VEC line crews, contract crews, and VEC staff are working to provide around-the-clock coverage and will continue to do so until all outages are restored. Some outages could last through the weekend and into early next week, especially in the hardest hit areas of Starksboro, Huntington, Hinesburg, Bolton, Richmond, Jericho, and Underhill.