blackout

candles might be one of the best inventions ever.

we had "blizzard-like" conditions yesterday. and coincidentally, the power went out. all day. and they needed to bring in an electrician from away, which was impossible until the winds and blowing snow went down. it was sort of cool... candles everywhere, boiling water on the campstove in the back porch, wondering if fiona's puppies would come in the midst of craziness.

our heat and hot water stopped working, the phones worked intermittently. then the reserve water ran out because the pump couldn't bring more out of the tank, so i had to trudge to school to use the bathrooom and brush my teeth before bed.

ah, the north. it's a good thing it was (and is) unseasonably warm right now and not -35 like it was all last week. our house seemed to hold its heat pretty well, and even now it's still alright. a bit chilly, but not cold yet. it's strange, having a power outage here. in some ways it is far more serious - having to fly an electrician in, the possibility of extremely cold temperatures, and the potential of getting lost in a blizzard on the way to the school when all the town's lights are out. but in some ways we are more prepared... it's more likely folks up here have a camp stove and camping gear, stores of non-perishable food and water, and so on.

i have to say, it can get really boring during a blizzard, especially when you only get 6 hours of daylight (yay 6 hours of daylight!!!).

the power came back around 5:30 this morning (I know because the streetlight woke me up when it clicked on) and our heat just returned now (10:45).