Planet Zorphskee: Back in Power

Our power went out close to 7:30am on Sunday morning. At that point the storm had been downgraded to Tropical Storm Irene but the weatherman, with all their hype, had actually been right. The wind still caused lots of damage, mostly in the form of downed trees that took out power for a lot of people. A lot of RI and CT was out of power.

I decided to check out the storm's intensity, or lack thereof, at noon at Sunday. There was some light rain and some decent wind gusts, but nothing to scare me. I have hiked up Mt. Washington when the wind was steadily blowing 60mph and gusting much higher than that. I have camped on top of mountains where trees where creaking and groaning all night long and our tent was flexing in the wind, when there was a tornado warning and a wind blown branch ripped a big hole in the tent next to us. And I have surivived for days at a time without electricity, modern plumbing, tv, or a shelter like a house. I don't mean to boast, just to say that for anybody who has done serious hiking and backpacking, it was not at all life threatening or something that couldn't be handeled.

We did our part though, stocking up on food and bottled water, filling the tub etc. We got out our lanterns, headlamps, and our camp stove. The latter being used by my grandma to make her much needed coffee. Spam was even had for lunch! But back to going outside. The road was covered in debris and there were some downed trees. I hiked up to "The Ledge", a cliff a few hundred feet up that gives a nice view of the surrounding area. There was some wind blown rain and strong wind gusts, but the storm was leaving our area. After the ledge I helped my uncle and cousin clear some trees from the road before heading back inside.

I can't imagine life without electricity...I got bored pretty quickly. So Joyful and I decided to take a drive and see what was going on. We saw many down trees and the first few stoplights were not working. As we drove further into Norwich though, the electricity was flowing. There were some gas stations open, so of course I had to stop and get a COLD SODA. PapaGinos was also open so we thought of maybe getting dinner there. Everybody was out and about as well, like they had no power and were bored. Wow, sounds like me! We stopped at the Marina in Norwich and there was a big yacht there, the Thrirteen. It looked ridiculously big in such a small area. Norwich is on the Thames river, not the ocean. At any rate we headed back, didn't get pizza, and instead went to dinner at my Aunts. Grilled chicken and cake over candlelight. It tasted very good. Mmmmm. But still no power.

I had thought the power had come back on as I awoke early the next morning, but I was mistaken. My Grandma suggested breakfast at Friendlys so we hopped in her car and drove there. But it appears everybody else without power had the same idea as we tried 2 Friendlys, 2 McDonalds, a diner, multiple Dunkin Donuts, and Burger King, and they all had lines out the door. By then it was around 10 and my other Aunt called, saying we could come there for food as they had a generator. So we obliged and headed to their farm, finally eating at 10:30. They raise sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, and I think thats it. It was our first time and we got a tour and saw the animals. Wow the pigs are big! This one pig knows how to open his "pigpen", he did once while we were there! Smart animal.

By the time we got back, the power finally came back, but we had to go to RI once again. Joy is taking her motorcycle classes on Tues. and Wed. and they start at 7:30am. So rather than driving over really early, we are sleeping over my parents house the next two nights. Then on Wednesday night we get to see Kamelot in concert.