Powerless or How I Learned to Be At the Mercy of Others
It was Friday evening when we first started to worry. I went to the Bruins game to help sell 50/50 tickets for the Taekwondo Club. When I left around 9:30, it was raining. We had watched the weather forecast all day and prayed that what they were forecasting would somehow miss us or at least not be as bad as predicted.
Saturday morning we woke up to rain and wind. I quickly started the cheesecake that my daughter requested for her birthday party which was scheduled for that afternoon. Then the wind picked up and the rain turned to snow. Two kids had to cancel due to the weather. But I was determined not to let a little weather get in the way of my daughter’s birthday party. When we left for the pool it was snowing and the highways were a little slushy. The sleet hit our faces as we walked in the building. The girls played in the pool, ate chips and cake and had a great time (I watched out the window as the snow gathered on the ground).
We brought one of the friends home with us for a sleepover. The drive home was significantly worse. The highway was covered in thick slush and the winds were brutal. Once we got everyone home, we made KD and hotdogs and everyone ate their fill. The girls went off to play while we cleaned up. Then the lights started to flicker. We quickly shut down all the computers and waited for the inevitable. Not long after the power gave one last flicker then shut off completely. We watched out the window as the snow piled up on the powerlines. The lines started to sag. Mark decided to prepare the generator for when we would need it. At one point, I went out to help him and I noticed something looked weird. It took me a second before I realized that the powerpole was sideways. Then I noticed two of the three lines were now laying across our driveway and into the ditch. That’s when we knew that the power wasn’t coming back any time soon.
SaskPower crews weren’t able to get out and fix things because of the driving snow and 90km winds. However later that night, a SaskPower truck drove down our road shining their giant spotlight on the poles and lines. It made me feel a whole better knowing that they knew what was going on and surely they’d be back when the weather improved to fix everything.
Back in the house everything was going well. The girls were all giggling together and having fun. Unfortunately, when they asked to watch a movie and have some popcorn we had to say no. And those waffles we promised in the morning would have to be canceled too. Poor Izzy. All she wanted for her birthday party was to roast hot dogs over the firepit and have a sleepover with a bunch of her friends in the camper. Then she compromised to a pool party and one friend in the house with a movie and popcorn and a special breakfast. Now she’s getting card games and cold cereal. However, I must say, she took it like a champ. She and her friend and her sister all gathered in the den and played card games by the light of the flashlights and they didn’t mind having cereal in the morning.
Sunday morning we still couldn’t leave our yard as the lines were still dangling across the driveway. So the friend’s mom came to pick up her daughter and we walked out to meet her at the end of the driveway. All in all it was still a fun birthday party and one she can tell her kids about one day.
Thankfully the temperature outside only got to about -1o and the house only got to 17 o so we didn’t even need to run the generator overnight.
I had big plans for Sunday, well okay, maybe not big, but plans. I was going to bake buns since we are completely out, get some groceries that we were low on and finish the laundry. Thankfully I did a load on Wednesday so we were completely out. Instead, we spent the day playing more card games and board games. Mark got a ride into town to pick up more diesel for the tractor to run the generator. The forecast was calling for a low of -6o so we figured that we would need to run it overnight.
Now, as most of you know, I like to make a big meal on Sunday to have leftovers. I took out a roast on Friday evening. I knew the forecast was going to be cold so I thought a warm meal would be nice. Instead, we warmed up some leftover pizza (while the generator was running) and ate the rest of the cake. However, the roast was still sitting thawed in the fridge. We knew we couldn’t leave it there so after supper Mark put it in the barbeque. And we waited. And we waited. Finally at 11:00pm we called it and let it cool in the garage. Mark started the generator back up and we went to bed.
Monday morning. We got ready for work and school while we still had the generator running. Once we were all ready to go, Mark turned it off and we all piled into the truck. We drove about halfway down our driveway then turned into our neighbour’s yard and onto their driveway to get out. It wasn’t pretty but it worked. Oh, did I mention that the school bus wasn’t running and won’t be running until further notice? Yeah, the driver is sick and there are no subs. But that’s the least of our issues.
When Mark brought the girls home after school to check on the house and get the generator back up and running, there was a crew out repairing all the broken poles. He came and picked me up from work and we grabbed some McDonald’s. Izzy has taekwondo on Monday evenings so we were hoping to make it. When I saw that they were working on the lines I thought for sure! Unfortunately, while they were working on the lines, the lines across our neighbour’s driveway slipped down so we were all trapped! They managed to get all the powelines back in their correct position just after 7pm which was just late enough so Izzy missed taekwondo. The crew working repairing the lines for about another half hour after that and then closed up shop for the night. Abby managed to finish her homework just as the light was fading. We turned the generator back on since it was going to be cold overnight again and went to bed. Mark set an alarm on his phone for 3 am so he could get up and check on everything and top up the diesel.
At 3:00 am Mark’s alarm went off and he went outside. He must have hit snooze instead of cancel because around 10 minutes later the alarm went off again. I rolled over and turned it off but in my haste of grabbing the phone in the dark, I pulled the plug out of the wall. I got up to plug it back in and realized that it wasn’t charging. Then I realized that the power was still out. I looked out of the window and the tractor was running which means that the generator should be running which means there should be power. And I couldn’t see Mark. I have been known to over-think things. I have been known to let my imagination run wild. I won’t list all the scenarios that ran through my head but suffice to say I put on my boots and jacket, grabbed my flashlight and headed out there.
When I got near the tractor I saw that Mark was inside. I was so happy. Then I opened the tractor door and alarms were blaring and lights were flashing and Mark was frantically flipping through the owner’s manual. I was a little less happy. The tractor hasn’t run the auto emissions procedure in quite awhile and the filter was plugged up and was ringing all sorts of alarm bells. Mark ran through the steps need to manually do it but it wasn’t working. Finally after 45 minutes (I went back to bed by this time) the warnings told him to go park the tractor or engine damage would occur. He barely got it back in the shop without it stalling out. So now the tractor is broken down and we can’t run the generator to provide backup power until they fix the powerpoles so they can hook up the power again. Deep breath.
I managed to get about an hour of sleep after that. I had some pretty weird dreams. All of them involved yelling at people, in one I got in a fight with one of the kids about a card game aft I made a mean joke. One of them involved living on a farm and something about our livestock. In all of the dreams we were without power. I didn’t realize until I was having breakfast that if Mark had hit cancel on the alarm like he intended instead of snooze I never would had woken up and gone and checked on him and he would have been left to deal with a tractor mid-breakdown all on his own.
At the crack of dawn Mark called the dealership where we bought the tractor. The funny thing is that the afternoon before the guy who sold us the tractor called Mark out of the blue just to see how we were doing, how the tractor and generator were working. Mark jokingly told him that it was basically saving our bacon right now! And now it’s toast. Luckily (and I mean that!!) there is still warranty on that issue for another three months so a tech came out today and hauled it back to the dealership to fix it up. Turns out they need a couple new parts and they gave us an old loaner until we get ours back. We got ready for school/work as best we could, dumped all the frozen food into the big freezer and prayed that it would stay frozen and set off. We went a little early so we could pick up coffee from McDonald’s. We kept an eye on things at home and Facebook so we could watch for any updates or see if anything switched on. I was a little concerned because the winds were 40 km/hr gusting to 60 km/hr and that might be a bit too much for crews. But all that worry was for nothing. Shortly after lunch we got the news that power had been restored.
So that is the complete saga of the last four days. Everything is now back to normal. I got a bunch of groceries to refill what we used, I am going to be doing all of the laundry that has been piled up, and this weekend I will bake more buns (well, maybe).
This little adventure has taught me a few things.
1. I like playing card games with my family. We need to make this a regular thing – not just when the power goes out.
2. Izzy and I and ruthless when it comes to playing Uno and other card/board games. We show no mercy. I like to say that I respect my opponent so I show them the honour of not taking it easy on them. Abby and Mark play a lot more mercifully.
3. We can comfortably survive 24-32 hours of no power as long as it doesn’t freeze overnight and the sun shines during the day. Anything more than that starts to get a little tiresome.
4. Having some spare leftover meals is important! Especially ones that don’t require a lot to re-heat. Bread thaws quickly but so does meat.
5. Good neighbours are a blessing.
6. SaskPower employees work really, really hard. Especially in emergencies.
7. Mark and I make a good team. When a problem arises we face it together. We support and help each other even if it’s just holding a flashlight.
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