No Electricity! Yikes! (Tuesday, 01/05/10)

We tiredly woke up. But it was day 2 of our gym/workout resolution, so we got ready to go. When I went out to start the car, it didn't want to turn on at first. I think the car was telling me that it was tired too. I could imagine it saying, "hey... leave me alone, I want to sleep!" But it turned on with the second try.

On the way to the daycare, we heard two things on the radio that got our interest.... some folks on our side of town had lost electricity early that morning, and the temperature at the moment was -3°!!!!! No wonder the car didn't want to start! Brrrrrr....!

Going to the gym was nice, but I was still tired. I'm hoping that my body will get used to the schedule. Towards the end of my workout on the stepping machine, I felt like I could sleep while doing it!

Lydia dropped me off at work, and the day went by pretty fast for me. I had a lot of stuff to do! Lydia had lunch with a friend, and got to spend some time visiting. Then she took a church friend to a dentist appointment later in the afternoon. Since I had several more things to accomplish at work, I had Lydia pick me up at 5:30.

When we arrived at home, Lydia started supper and I set up the laptop and my mother-in-law's video camera to record the wedding of Silas and Kristi to my hard-drive. My camera was focused on the Groom and Groomsmen, Paulette's camera was focused on the Bride and Bridesmaids, and the church got the center view of it all. I going to be putting the two side views on a DVD for the wedding couple (hopefully by Sunday).

While I was setting the laptop up, Lydia started playing Hide-n-seek with the kids. They really enjoyed that. Malachi would hide, but at the end of the counting, would pop out and "find you"! He's such a card! Mysia, however, was pretty good at the hiding! After the video had started, I got in the act too. It was a great game! There was one time when we hid and Mysia was the seeker.... it took her forever to find us because she noticed the video playing and spent 5+ minutes watching it instead of looking for us!!!!!

Our game ended when our associate Pastor, Tim Banks, rang our doorbell. He had come to retrieve the church van that had been sitting in our driveway since Saturday night (due to the snow). He wanted to get it before the next snowstorm, that's due to hit in the morning of Wednesday!!!

We ate supper, and let the kids play for a bit while we cleaned up. They didn't really want to start their showers, but I convinced Mysia that she could take hers first. That won her over.

A little before 7:30, after Mysia had gotten shower and was getting dressed, the lights flickered and we lost electricity! At first I thought it was the breaker, but a quick look outside proved to me that it was our entire street. Lydia called City Utilities and got their computer system, but it got her phone number and the incident was reported.

We brought out our battery-operated (electric) lanterns and used them to keep the living-room lit. I also gave Malachi a a quick shower with what warm water was left. He was finished and dressed when the two trucks arrived in front of our house. They looked at the transformer, brought out a pole, and reset it. We had power! Er... sort of...

Come to find out, it gave our house electricity... and only our house. Actually, half of our house. The front half. The back bedrooms and heater did not get any. They ended up turning it back off and telling everyone on our street that the transformer had gone bad, and that we'd have to wait for them to install a new one. So I asked the guy his estimate on how long. He replied that it used to be thirty minutes, but now that everything (like the calls) is done by the new computer system, it could take an hour or more. Great....

Oh, as the the bucket came down, Mysia remarked in a semi-sarcastic tone, "What did he do? Just go up there and feed the birds?"

They sat around for a while, and then one truck left. The next one left about 15 minutes later. As he drove off, Mysia began to cry... "Why are they leaving....?" I had to assure her not to worry, and that they'll be back.

He gathered together on the couch and did devotions and memory verses before sending the kids to their beds. The plan was that if they didn't show up by 10, we were going to pack up and head to my parents' house! But a little after 10, they showed up (to my relief). Lydia went ahead and went to bed, putting the kids with her since it had gotten very cold in the house.

I stayed up, watching the guys install the new transformer. Finally, they switched the power on at 11pm. I rushed to the thermostat to see how cold it was in the house! 55°F! Brrr!

I scooted into our queen size bed, and fell out. Too many bodies! I eventually made it in, but was on the edge.... Several hours later, when the the house had heated up, I put the kids in their own beds and was able to sleep.

~Matt