Dear Diary,
Well, the power didn't come back on during the night. We ended up taking Sunny to our bed after all, but after one hour of her playing and wriggling we decided it was better to bundle her up into her own bed. We lit the gas stove top burners (after realizing that the gas stove itself has a safety mechanism that prevents it from being lit by cave idiots such as ourselves who might unwittingly blow themselves out of existence). After an hour of running the burners, the house was toasty enough to sleep until morning without waking as a Popsicle. Yes, we do have carbon monoxide alarms, and No, we didn't leave the burners running while we slept.
First thing in the morning I made a charming stove top breakfast of oatmeal, tea, and eggs. I am now wishing that I had time to wash the dishes the day before...and the day before that. I made a bunch of lovely pumpkin loaves the other day and they are coming in handy for lunch. It is quite warm outside today and the snow is melting rapidly, so we are planning to head to our friend's home for brunch and social.
When we were on our way home from the social I got a message from a neighbor exclaiming that, "The power is back on!" Just as we were rejoicing and talking about who was going to get the first hot shower, my neighbor messaged again saying that, "When they turned the power on a transformer across the street blew up and now the yard is on fire... they are saying it may be another week before it is fixed." I am sure you can imagine our dismay when we reached our street and found a barricade on one side including fire trucks and police cars surrounding a blaze that resembled a car sized blow torch gone mad. The sound from the burning wires was terrific and the smell of melting asphalt nauseating.
Once inside the house we decided that because of the low temperatures during the night and the hazardous flames outside that we would ask our friends to spend the night. While waiting for responses we packed our meats and dairy goods into coolers with snow and put them on the back porch for the night. I realized with dismay that I had planned only frozen boxed meals for the week due to our crazy schedule. We were supposed to make frozen pizza that night. Peter was determined to not let the power-outage get the best of us and waste his beloved pizza meal, so we packed up and headed for our parish, which was sure to have power. It was definitely a blessing that one of the residing priests was just leaving as we arrived! He agreed to let us us their kitchen for our dinner.
All the priests were out for the evening so we made ourselves at home. My husband took over the task of making the pizza in the oven while I tried to keep Sunny from pulling everything out of the unfamiliar cabinets and pantry. After about 15 minutes of cook time Peter opened the door to the oven to check the pizza's progress only to unleash a mass of smoke into the air. We were so worried that it would set off the fire alarm kept right about the stove and then the whole parish and church would be one sounding alarm. It would have been so embarrassing to have the fire department show up and find us in a kitchen that wasn't even ours!
As quickly as we could we closed off the kitchen doors to prevent the smoke from traveling and opened all the windows. Peter used a small potholder to try to keep the air moving (since the potholder was so small, it looked more like he was trying to hastily wave the smoke goodbye!). Fortunately, this worked and the air cleared and he was able to remove the pizza from the oven. It turns out that a few drippings caused the smoke. After we finished our meal, we cleaned up, left a note, and headed home. During our fiasco in the kitchen we got a call from a friend who lovingly opened his home to us for the night, so we quickly packed up a few night things for ourselves, grabbed Sunny's accessories (if you have children you know what I mean by accessories: play pen, blankets, teddy bear, noise maker, diaper bag, the kitchen sink...), and headed to our friend's house for the night.
Well, the power didn't come back on during the night. We ended up taking Sunny to our bed after all, but after one hour of her playing and wriggling we decided it was better to bundle her up into her own bed. We lit the gas stove top burners (after realizing that the gas stove itself has a safety mechanism that prevents it from being lit by cave idiots such as ourselves who might unwittingly blow themselves out of existence). After an hour of running the burners, the house was toasty enough to sleep until morning without waking as a Popsicle. Yes, we do have carbon monoxide alarms, and No, we didn't leave the burners running while we slept.
First thing in the morning I made a charming stove top breakfast of oatmeal, tea, and eggs. I am now wishing that I had time to wash the dishes the day before...and the day before that. I made a bunch of lovely pumpkin loaves the other day and they are coming in handy for lunch. It is quite warm outside today and the snow is melting rapidly, so we are planning to head to our friend's home for brunch and social.
When we were on our way home from the social I got a message from a neighbor exclaiming that, "The power is back on!" Just as we were rejoicing and talking about who was going to get the first hot shower, my neighbor messaged again saying that, "When they turned the power on a transformer across the street blew up and now the yard is on fire... they are saying it may be another week before it is fixed." I am sure you can imagine our dismay when we reached our street and found a barricade on one side including fire trucks and police cars surrounding a blaze that resembled a car sized blow torch gone mad. The sound from the burning wires was terrific and the smell of melting asphalt nauseating.
Once inside the house we decided that because of the low temperatures during the night and the hazardous flames outside that we would ask our friends to spend the night. While waiting for responses we packed our meats and dairy goods into coolers with snow and put them on the back porch for the night. I realized with dismay that I had planned only frozen boxed meals for the week due to our crazy schedule. We were supposed to make frozen pizza that night. Peter was determined to not let the power-outage get the best of us and waste his beloved pizza meal, so we packed up and headed for our parish, which was sure to have power. It was definitely a blessing that one of the residing priests was just leaving as we arrived! He agreed to let us us their kitchen for our dinner.
All the priests were out for the evening so we made ourselves at home. My husband took over the task of making the pizza in the oven while I tried to keep Sunny from pulling everything out of the unfamiliar cabinets and pantry. After about 15 minutes of cook time Peter opened the door to the oven to check the pizza's progress only to unleash a mass of smoke into the air. We were so worried that it would set off the fire alarm kept right about the stove and then the whole parish and church would be one sounding alarm. It would have been so embarrassing to have the fire department show up and find us in a kitchen that wasn't even ours!
As quickly as we could we closed off the kitchen doors to prevent the smoke from traveling and opened all the windows. Peter used a small potholder to try to keep the air moving (since the potholder was so small, it looked more like he was trying to hastily wave the smoke goodbye!). Fortunately, this worked and the air cleared and he was able to remove the pizza from the oven. It turns out that a few drippings caused the smoke. After we finished our meal, we cleaned up, left a note, and headed home. During our fiasco in the kitchen we got a call from a friend who lovingly opened his home to us for the night, so we quickly packed up a few night things for ourselves, grabbed Sunny's accessories (if you have children you know what I mean by accessories: play pen, blankets, teddy bear, noise maker, diaper bag, the kitchen sink...), and headed to our friend's house for the night.
~Michelle
Transformer blaze... marshmallows anyone?
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