Surviving Nemo

DAY 1:

It is a dark and stormy night.

Actually it is a sunny and cheerful morning. Birds are singing with that spring cheerfulness … which is odd because it is the middle of the winter and we all are huddling in fear for the record-breaking blizzard that is coming any moment now. I  go about my very important duties (i.e. FB and chat … pretending to work on a novel). The next time I get up and stretch after working so hard (get another snack), and it seems a pleasant bit of fluffy snow is blowing about.

No menace yet.

The snow picks up. The skies get nice and grey. Evidence points to the concept that maybe the harbingers of doom my have approached reality slightly this time. I am back at the computer, still "working hard." Eventually I actually start working on the story. And of course the lights started flickering. Just when I really get involved with the story, the power goes out. The next street over still has it. It is not even remotely bed time. And just when the cartoons start getting good again. But no worries. We have candles. Flashlights. Food in the fridge. And most importantly a fully charged smart phone. FB lives on.

DAY 2:

Twelve hours of sleeping (FB on a smart phone only holds your attention so long … and eats up a battery quickly). No power. We are buried. Can’t even get out the door. Temperature is holding at a steady 54 in the house. Wind is howling. Snow is doing snow stuff. Lightning is lightning. Hey who said they were allowed to have lightening during a snow storm? I call shenanigans. I twiddle my thumbs. Mom sleeps. The cat switches between sleeping and twiddling thumbs. I realize that it is actually possible to do that writing thing still. I find that we still do have paper and a pencil, though it is very dusty. I write some more. I get hungry. The cat starts looking yummy. Oh yeah. fridge is still full. I eat something. then go back to writing. Can keep my phone charged because my computer has enough juice for 4 or 5 phone charges. Halfway through the second charge the computer dies. It gets too dark to write. The plows and shovelers have been by, ensuring our car is now completely buried. I start digging it out and realize that I really don’t want too. My phone still has SOME juice in it. so I don’t need the car. I go back to bed.

DAY 3:

Still no power. Now phone is almost dead. Nice sunny day though. House is about 42 degrees and dropping. Mom and cat start looking yummy again. Good thing the house is colder than the refrigerator so all the food is still good. I am forced to dig out the car. How else will I charge my phone? Other survivors crawl out from under the snow. Rumor has it that the center of the town (about thirty feet that way) has actually had power since last night. NOW they tell us. I convince mom that coming outside in the sun heated car is actually a tad more comfortable than sitting in a house that is now in the thirties and gloomy. We drive the ravished countryside ( that as far as I can tell is barely ravished at all), and find a guy who has some wood to sell. We stock up, and then go to the 99 Restaurant that is about a half a mile THAT way that was actually open last night to feed our emaciated bodies. We go home and start a fire. The cat is happy. The powers that be don’t want to bother telling us when the power might be back on. No doubt to prevent riots. It gets dark again. I go out and plug my phone into the car again. Ready to go back to bed. Suddenly there is a flash … the world finally ending? No the power is back. The neighborhood celebrates with Bacchanalian  fervor. My mom makes tea.

DAY 4:

It is raining. We are mostly thawed out again. It seems the horror is over, except that there are still many folk who are no doubt savages now because they still have no power. Life seems to get back to normal until … a very disciplined pack of Wild Turkeys surrounds our house. They seem to mean business. They were eyeing us like … well we where a thanksgiving turkey. Fortunately they decided that they could get better fixings elsewhere and we survived the last threat. Life is back to normal now. Me hard at work. Mom doing what mom does when I am hard at work. The cat doing cat things.

This would have been more exciting if we did not lose power every time Mother Nature sneezes. It’s starting to get old.