the indoor sauna.

do i even need to explain to you why i posted this picture of a weather map?

anyone form the region i live in were clobbered by a recent early storm that left most of us in the dark.

our power fluctuated until it went off at around 9:00pm on saturday. the next time we had power was at 1:30am on wednesday. that was three and a half days of no electricity and no heat.
we managed to use our gas stove, so lots of hot tea was consumed and we had hot meals.

i ended up getting crafty by boiling pots of water with rocks in them to get the temperature up in the closed off kitchen and bedroom of our home. our poor gecko, smiegel, almost froze to death, but she got the same hot rock treatment and sunlight to re-invigorate her self.

the biggest concern was elsie.

we were afraid that she'd catch a cold as i saw the temperature dip on our thermostat every day.

she ended up in bed between the two of us and i was relieved that terri was still breastfeeding, as her stored milk went bad in the refrigerator.

i'll have to say that she was a trooper, even when she was being changed and her skin was exposed.

on monday night we actually gave in and stayed at my mom's house in the nearby city of holyoke. they had their power back on and it also gave my mom time with elsie.

we ended up taking jackson and smiegel along for the ride to my moms.

i ended up staying at our house without power on tuesday night after work, because jackson didn't was misbehaving at my mom's and couldn't stay there again.

around 1;30am on wednesday i was in the bathroom and had to do a double take when i saw the night light above our sink come to life.

so what did i take away from this experience?

i learned that we are a very adaptable species and that i am able to go right along with a sudden change.
i learned that without power i could still entertain my self with a good book. i learned that in the old days, it took forever to do something and i had to pace my moves and be a bit more calculating in my decisions. i also enjoyed how quiet everything was. there weren't any machines constantly going on and off in our home and there weren't so many devices that had lights to distract us.

outside the night sky was at a brilliance that i don't think i'll be able to see until the next black out.

i'm pretty sure that the biggest thing i learned was that there is a lot more out there than the television or the internets.

in a world that shows you how to live on t.v., it sure was nice to actually do some living, instead of watching someone else doing it for a change.

i didn't miss either at all to be honest with you.

photo: necn.com screenshot