Big windstorms knocked out our electrical power overnight Thursday. Andy left for work Friday morning in the dark just after 4am, and nearly took the lid off his car rounding a bend on the Barnet Highway driving under a fallen tree that lay across the road, thankfully a few inches higher than the top of our car. I awoke at 6:30 to light candles and hand out the flashlights that Andy had lined up for us before he left.
The schools were closed, so the kids and I ate cold cereal for breakfast and marvelled at the quiet. No furnace, fridge, tv, toaster, dishwasher, washing machine, computer! I figured out that I could heat water for coffee on the side burner of our barbeque outside, so we had hot coffee. Then we bundled up in the chilly house and were quiet. I did my usually end of the week tidy up, returning the distributed evidence of our week to its proper drawers, closets and bedrooms and took out the trash and recycling. Alex read 2 newspapers and the latest MAD magazine. Fi made Christmas cards. Then we all played a game of Simpson's Clue (it was Bart, in the Springfield Retirement Village, with the plutonium rod).
When it became evident that there would be no power for lunch, the kids informed me that mac and cheese on the barbeque burner was not what they had in mind, and besides, there was Christmas shopping to do. So we drove to the mall, which had power. I helped Fi buy all her presents. Alex bought a couple then bused home, not being one for marathons in crowds. We ate lunch at the food court. Later we found out that Lougheed Mall was closed, so that explained why absolutely everybody was at Coquitlam Centre. I think I'm done with mall shopping, which makes me happy.
On the way back home we discovered that some neighbourhoods still had no power. We also found out that evening dance class and rehearsal were cancelled, but power was back at our house. So Andy cooked a yummy supper, and we enjoyed a family movie evening. I was asleep before 10.
It was a bit inconvenient, and slightly dangerous in one part, but I liked this day. It was like a gift of time stopped and an opportunity to listen to quiet for a few hours. The mall part was raucous but necessary, as it took allowed us to get some crucial business done in a lot less of a hurry than otherwise, and there was a very nice ending.
question: were you electrical or non-electrical on Friday?
mompoet - did you notice it snowed?
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