QUOTE (BfloGal @ Jun 28 2008, 03:45 PM)
Oh, I complain when the power is out for a few hours too. After six days you just walk around kind of numb wondering how people survived the 1800s.
But -- good news -- we just got a whole house generator (I wonder why). It was a big expense, but we had an outage two days after it was put in, and I was right here on the boards. It was sweet.
As much as I hate telephones, I'd never make it as an Amish. I like electricity.
Gotcha beat!!! Although, it's not much of an honor.
We had a reeeeeally vicious ice storm in March 1991. I was at work on 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift, fortunately only a mile from my home. Had to bring one of the girls I worked with home with me, as she lived too far to try to go home with that much ice on the roads. Had to crawl into the passenger door--after someone sprayed the heck out of it with lock de-icer, and then over the shifter console.
Took us twenty minutes to go a mile.
The main interstate near us was clear, but the country roads' snow melt/plowing plan is called Spring. We live three miles from the Interstate.
We had no cell phones then, and hubby was anxiously watching for me. When we got to the house, every electric pole for the two miles from my job to the next mile up was broken off at the ground level, and laying in the fields. At that time, my M_I_L was very ill, near death's door, and hubby's brother, s-i-l and child from hell (never any type of discipline, no matter what she did) were already staying at our house (they live in New Jersey, we're in Illinois)---along with hubby, me, our daughter, and the poor girl I dragged home from work with me. We have three bedrooms, but people were sleeping on the floors.
On the way home, it seemed the headlights were really dim---yep, had a car with the little hoody thingys over the lights, and they were frozen in closed position.
Trying to make a looooooong story short.
When you have no electric in the country, that means NO POWER TO RUN THE WATER PUMP.. You got it, seven people in the house, and no way to flush. Ewwwwwwww. BTW--melted snow in pan on stove to pour in toilet tank.
Early the next day, we borrowed a 4-wheel drive truck, took b-i-l and family to hubby's Mom's apartment and left them----took Sandy home, and went out to get a generator. Had to go to a bunch of stores before we paid an outrageous price for one that we could only run one appliance at a time.
Took them 16 days to restore power to us. It was most of a twelve square mile area and every pole had to be replaced, as they all were down. Needless to say, when they got to my house, I was standing at the end of our driveway with a thermos full of hot cocoa for them.
All of this from an electric co-op that claims to be non-profit--they used to mail us a letter each year to tell us how much our share of the profit would be. But-----you had to be a member for 20 years first before they paid you from 20 years before.. We made it 18 before they could no longer do that due to rising prices.....and we never got a dime. And, to add insult to all this injury, we have never paid less than $100 a month for electricity for almost 29 years.
On a happier (?) note--- the next year we had another smaller ice storm, again while I was at work. On my way home, I have to drive over the overpass for the Interstate. Which was ice filled, even though the road on either side was dry. My car slid from side to side all the way across the bridge, and when I got to clear roads on the other side, the car slammed into the guard rail, went semi-airborne, landed on the guard-rail.. The car slid about twenty feet down the guard-rail with me praying to every God anyone ever believed in. Car turned sideways, plowed down a steeeeeep hill towards the Interstate, with louder praying. I could just see me landing in front of a semi on the interstate. Car stopped in the field too close to the Interstate for my comfort. Every piece of anything on the bottom of that car that could be yanked off was....and the gas tank fill-spout was under the rear license plate, and most of the gas tank was shoved out the spout and was hanging out of the back of the car.
Fortunately, I was not injured, just reeeeally scared and sore for two or three days.
Oh, and when the tow-truck driver got there, he asked hubby (who was at the top of the hill with me) to put the car in gear to help get it out of the muddy field. Hubby trudged down the hill. I had locked the doors!!! I didn't want anyone stealing it while I went to the closest house to call the tow truck and police.!!! Forgot it had no tires, muffler, gas tank and a few other parts I don't know the names of. He was not happy---esp since he got a look at what I did to the car, laying in pieces-parts all the way down the hill, had to come back up the hill, then back down.
The place I was working at at that time was on the way to the wrecked-car lot. They were very upset when they saw my car go by on the back of the tow-truck half an hour or so after I left work, and tried to call my house and got no answer. Hubby did take me up there first thing to let them know that only the car was broken, and not me.
I'm not so sure that the peace and tranquility of country life is always worth it.
Meme
Come to think of it, tho, the SVUers'll probably just have virtual chocolate! 
