The View from My Back Porch

OKay, so not really the view from my back porch, but the side of my house is tons of mountains.  Its great, I love it.  However, there are downsides.  One of which is the wind.  Since we are right at the base of the mountains, it is inevitable that the temperature mysteriously drops about 10 degrees the minute you turn on our road.  If its raining in town, its snowing at my house.  And more recently, if its windy in town, its GALE FORCE WINDS. 

Last night, the wind was so strong, Vince thinks the gusts were at least 60 miles per hour.  It was insane!  The power flickered multiple times and then the transformer in front of our house blew.  By about 11:30pm, the power was completely out.  And with the wind chill, the temperature was about -2 degrees.  So the temperature of the house started dropping right away.  We had all three kids over this weekend, so of course Vince and I didn't sleep very well, worry about it getting too cold for the kids.  We threw extra blankets on all of them, planning to pull them in bed with us if it got too cold.  The power flicked on and off most of the night. 

When Vince got up to go to his meeting the power was on.  Vince got in the shower, and got ready to leave. Right before he left, he saw a big gust of wind uproot a huge tree across the street from us.  It knocked down a bunch of power lines and Vince called 911.  He told me the power would probably go out again soon cause of the tree, and he was right.  Shortly after he left at about 8:30am, the power went out again and stayed out.  We got ready for church purely by the light streaming in the windows (which unfortunately does not reach our hall bathroom!).  I told the kids not to flush until everyone had gone to try and save water, and they listened.  Both boys brushed their teeth, conserving as much water as possible...and then the water was gone.  So...no shower for me.  Glad the kids all took one the night before.  My mom was picking us up for church this morning, so I called her and asked her to bring us a little bottle of water so that at least Ally and I could brush our teeth.  What a mess!

Well, believe it or not, the same stinkin thing happened tonight.  At about 8pm, the power went out.  And stayed out.  So that means no power, no phone, no cable, no internet.  No technology.  Augh.  So I call my dad and ask him to call the power company to find out what the deal is and what the ETA for the power to be restored.  Well he tells me that the map on the website says its our street and the two cities north of us, with about 900 people without power and the only note on the site says that they are hoping to have the power restored by 7am!  WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?!?  ELEVEN HOURS WITHOUT POWER AT ABOUT 0 DEGREES OUTSIDE?!?!?! 

So my dad calls and tells us to come in town with them, and my brother is super excited about the potential sleepover that he even offers to let Vince and I sleep in his bed (as long as we don't have sex in it).  GROSS!  Lol.  Well, we couldn't lave our dogs here by themselves to freeze and not pee again til tomorrow, so we stalled.  We hadn't eaten either and Vince was at the point that he was going to cook a frozen pizza on the grill outside in the freezing cold (which you can totally do, btw).  Thankfully, the power came back on around 10pm.  So we cross our fingers that we'll make it through the night without losing power again.

That's the side effects of the view from the side of my house.