Going toward the light, the heat and the water…

I think it will be quite a while before people around here stop talking about our Freak October Snowstorm.  We love comparing how long our electricity was out, our relative hardships and woes and how we managed to get rid of the trees blocking our paths.  One friend told me on Sunday that she got pretty sick of melting snow to wash her hair so she could go to work.  Now me…I would have gone dirty.

  But I sure wouldn’t have liked it.  I admire Laurie's pioneering spirit.

The power went out on Saturday, by Monday I had already had enough of it.  I was ok with scrounging around for food since most of our town’s restaurants were open by Monday evening.  I was ok with the cold.  Once I got wrapped in my blankets and settled the dog next to me, I wasn’t that uncomfortable.  I could even do without the light although I will admit that it was hard to read holding a flashlight.  But my bad…I should have picked a book that was a less heavy than “Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince” to re-read.  It would have been easier.

I could have survived fine for the full six days if it were just the lack of hot food, the cold and the dark to contend with, but it was the water that put me over the edge.   You see, we have a well and a septic system out here.  So without power, there is no water pressure and only one to two flushes in each toilet.  It’s a royal pain in the you-know-what!  So now that we have our water back, I keep thinking what a luxury it is to be able to flush the toilet and then to wash my hands!  How utterly extravagant is that morning shower!  Even a drink of cool, fresh water seems lavish now.

Having no water was enough to send us to Syracuse to visit my son Evan who for once in his time there could say, “It’s OK, Mom, there’s no weather here.”  They were outside the weather system that brought us the snow.  So we picked up our daughter Carrie in Northampton, Massachusetts, and we all went out to Syracuse, New York, the seemingly perpetual winner of The Golden Snowball Award, to bask in the sun, the good weather and the electricity.  And, most importantly, to unwind under a nice hot shower.

  Sometimes irony is a good thing.

Two nights there were enough to shore us up for the cold, dark days ahead.  We were happy to see that Carrie’s lights were back on when we dropped her off in Northampton.  It took another 60 plus hours for us to get ours back…but then who’s counting??  We survived.  Still it was great to get that Syracuse break.

Cool bridge near Skaneateles, New York.

Good advice for all mankind.

Vineyard near Skaneateles, New York.

View of Skaneateles Lake.