You might want to put on a coat or a warm blanket before reading this true story of our last week of January, 2009...

We started with about 4" of snow on Monday, after which I moved the Subaru to the bottom of the hill knowing we were going to get ice on top of the snow.  We awoke Tuesday morning at 5:30 am when the power went out, watching flashes of "lightning" which were actually transformers exploding.  We ended up with about 3/4" of ice on everything and 700,000 people in the area without power.

The emergency calls after Hurricane Ike in September lasted for about 12 hours.  The emergency calls on this storm were still going strong at the 36 hour mark.

We ventured out to find that 2 trees landed on top of the Subaru, and another 4 trees were down across the drive.  We were officially "stuck".

I started hauling firewood up to the house and burned a fire from 1PM to 10PM.  I cooked hot soup on the camp stove for both meals.  We heard on the radio about a store in New Albany expecting to get 100 generators the next morning, and we called and put our name on the list.  They said they couldn’t guarantee that they would hold it for us.  The quest to get out of the driveway began.  I backed the Subaru out from under the trees to discover that the snow and ice actually protected the vehicle.  I moved the sleeping bags up to our bedroom, and moved more firewood up to the house before dark.  If it's dark, I can only move 3 logs at a time, but if it's light I can move 4.  That night, the temperature of the bedroom went down to 59 degrees.  We went to bed at 10PM and the store called about the generator at 10:30PM to get a credit card number to be able to hold the generator.

The next morning was extremely hard to get out of the sleeping bag.  My hands and toes are hurting just thinking about it.  Someone from the store with the generator called to see if we still wanted it.  If we had not answered the telephone they would have given it away to someone else.  I took the chainsaw down and made 4 cuts and pulled the top of one of the trees away from the drive, then drove around the top of the other tree and started trying to get the other doors open.  I had opened the driver's door the day before the ice really hit.  I forgot how the remote unlocks the driver door only on the first push, then all other doors with the second push of the remote, unlike the Saab.  I spent an hour trying to open locked doors that I thought were iced shut.  We finally went down and bought the generator and spent 3 hours looking for gas cans.  On our 10th try, I bought the last 3 two gallon gas cans in Southern Indiana, and limped home to move more firewood up to the house. 

The temperature that night went to 8 degrees outside and about 43 degrees in the house.  I cooked spaghetti and meatballs, but realized after the fact that when you put it on a 40 degree plate you have to eat it pretty darn fast before it gets cold.  Anyway, she's no longer making fun of my "stupid camping equipment".  That night we took turns putting another log on the fire every hour to keep it going.

The next day I went out to lunch, but couldn't convince her to leave the house.  I went to the Chinese buffet, and had to restrain myself from eating the whole thing.  I took the instruction book to the generator into the restaurant, and realized that the legs and wheels were not on it and I couldn't just roll it up the drive.  Now the reality set in that I would have to clear the drive in order to use the generator.

I drove 15 minutes to get her brother-in-law from Sellersburg to help with the wood.  It turned out he's as scared of the chainsaw as I am.  We started cutting and had to keep going back to the Subaru to thaw every 15 minutes or so.  Hours later we arrived at the garage and unloaded the big box.  I couldn't have assembled it myself, as my hands were so dry and cracked in several places.  We finished just before dark and I took him back to his house.  On the way home I gassed up the containers.  Only premium fuel was available as there was a shortage of gas in the Louisville metro area.  Oh, by the way, now you can't buy D cell batteries in Southern Indiana as there is a shortage on them too.

I made the mistake of stopping at local chicken joint to bring home some fried chicken.  I was the 8th person in line.  I found out from the guy in front of me that UPS is preparing for the 12 inches of snow that we will get this Monday.  We watched the comedy of errors unfold for about 15 minutes as they ran out of cole slaw, then ran out of chicken.  I know from being in the chicken business that 15 minutes later, the same comedy will unfold another 2-3 times before I get a bucket, so I leave and see the line wrapped around the next closest fast food joint about 3 times.  I drove to the Hong Kong Chinese (which is probably the number 5 Chinese restaurant in town) and placed my order.  Sue ran hot water (one of our blessings – we have a large LP gas tank out back) in the sink and soaked the bowls and plates.  Dinner was hot - the room was cold - dinner was great.

I went out after dinner and ran a ground line to the generator, filled the oil (that takes forever) and gas and started it up.  It ran great for 117 seconds and died.  I couldn't get it started again.  Now it's time to load wood, but I have to use one hand for the flashlight so I can't carry the extra log.  I tried four more time to start the machine with no success.  I remember how to use a choke on an engine from my MG days, but I couldn't figure out how to get this one running.  Another historically or hysterically cold night as temperatures fall into the single digits again.   Now the telephone land line stops working and will probably be out of service until February 9.

The power came on just as I was leaving for lunch today.  I tried once again to convince Sue to go to lunch at a restaurant with no success.  She says "bring home a sub" and I left for Famous Dave's BBQ.  I parked on the front row, was seated immediately and served well.  I swam through the ribs, fries, beans, corn and cornbread and some of the best brewed tea I've ever tasted.  On the way home I stopped at a Subway and bought her a meatball marinara sub and tucked it inside my coat pocket to keep it warm. 

If we hadn't had hot water, I don't know if we could have survived.  On one trip up the drive, I realized that this is probably a good time to start the 5 year exit strategy from our lovely home.

Saturday night after dinner, Sue was washing the wax off a crystal candlestick and sliced her finger open.  Off to the emergency room for 3 hours of viewing the interesting people of New Albany before giving up and coming home.  We were in the ER long enough for the cut to heal by itself, but will probably still get a hefty bill.

The happy ending was watching Saturday Night Live and the skit on the edible diapers.  We were laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe for a while.  We slept beautifully in normal clothing.

We're hoping to enjoy wings and fries during the Super Bowl, which we might actually be able to watch.

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