Welcome to the Dark Side

Our power went out around 10 am on Sunday.  It was returned to us around 7:30 Thursday night.  That is, for those keeping score at home, just under four and a half days with no power.  Some of that was broken up by the fact that Adam and I still went to work, and some of that was broken up by the fact that when you have no electric, you go to bed when it gets dark out- which runs about 7:40 pm these days, if anyone's interested.

But to fill the other hours without tv, video games, cell phones, or the computer, you can:

curl up under quilts and read (or nap!)

play with the dog

look up knitting patterns (in real books!  Instead of on Ravelry!)

Knit in the sunshine

or by lamplight

after you convince your husband to wind some balls of yarn for you.

(winding yarn is not Adam's favorite past time)

You could find new and exciting uses for the garage overhang and some 550 cord

when the power goes out mid-laundry cycle.

Harvest some lavender

or play in the sunshine

All in all, it wasn't a terrible experience.  Not one that we would like to repeat at any point in the near future, but not awful.  We kept thinking how much harder the whole thing would have been had we been in the middle of a sweltering heat wave and trying to keep the animals cool or in the middle of a blizzard or cold snap and trying to keep the water troughs from becoming 50 gallon ice bergs without power to the electric heaters.  Honestly, the animals didn't have a clue that anything was different.  We ran two borrowed generators, one for the chest freezer in the garage and the other for the water pump and furnace so that we could water the animals and take quick, hot showers.  And flush the toilets, which becomes more important than you might imagine after Day 1 without power.   

The one good thing that came out of the whole experience (other than getting a lot of knitting done) was the fact that without other distractions, Adam and I got to spend a LOT of time together.  There was not much else to do other than talk to each other, no video games to play or Facebook to check.  We went to bed early together, got up early together, and spent a lot more time, in general, together.  We also got to spend some time with his family, as his sister had power, so those without were huddled around her table for hot meals. 

So, in short, it could have been a lot worse.