The forecast last week was for a nasty storm to hit over the weekend. It was the first storm of the season, so I was hoping it would not really be anything and pass by with a few flakes. I had a doctor appointment on Friday and was determined to finish Christmas shopping. When I got in the tahoe to leave the mall at 12:30pm, the thermometer read 60 degrees! It was a gorgeous day to be running in and out of stores.
For work, the fair preparations start early. The market beef weigh-in was scheduled for Saturday and I kept hoping the weather would cooperate so we didn’t need to postpone it. It started raining Friday night about 8pm and continued all through the night. I woke up at 5am to check the weather, ready to postpone if needed. The temperature was 44 degrees and it was still raining. We went ahead with the event and by 10:30am the rain had turned to big, fluffy, hard-to-see-through flakes. Although the temperature had dropped, we didn’t have freezing rain to be concerned about; everyone made it safely.
I got home from weigh-in and the weather was pretty calm. In fact, it stopped snowing and was a pretty mild afternoon. We planned on attending a wedding reception and cocktail party at the country club that evening with friends. At 5:30pm I came up from the basement to start getting ready and boy, had the weather changed! It was snowing, blowing and the temperature had dropped to the low 20s. Neither party location was far from our house, so it didn’t change our plans.
We dropped Lucas off with a babysitter at Garth & Jen’s and headed to the reception. About an hour later, Brent received a cell phone call and was urgently telling me we needed to leave. I immediately thought the worst of every scenario that popped into my head. We were almost to the tahoe by the time Brent was off the phone and he told me what was going on. Our neighbor, Scott, was calling to tell us that a power line in our back yard was sparking and he thought we should get home and check on it. Our biggest concern was which line it was and how close it was to the house. The way the wind was whipping, he was worried it could catch the house on fire.
After investigating, the house appeared to be safe so we went in and called the electric company. The “spark” that the power lines were creating really lit up the sky when it flamed. It was just above the storage shed, right near our property line. Sometimes it would spark for just a second, other times it would go on for 20-30 seconds. The embers created by the spark would float away, many landed on our next door neighbor’s deck.
The first question on the automated answering service for the electric company is “Is this a life threatening emergency?” Brent responded “yes” and then sat on hold for EIGHT minutes. Sure glad no one was being electrocuted in those eight minutes. He spoke with a dispatcher, explained the issue and she said she’d have a crewman call us back shortly. A few minutes later we received the call-back and were informed they weren’t coming because of the weather conditions. While we agreed that the weather was not ideal, isn’t it their job to fix these problems? The guy said that eventually the power line would burn through and then we’d be out of power until they could fix it “first thing” Sunday morning. GRRRRRRRRRRRREAT!
Since there wasn’t much we could do at home about it and everything appeared safe from fire, we set the flashlights on the counter, knowing we’d need them later, and decided to go to the cocktail party at the country club. About 10:30pm another neighbor, Harry, called to inform us that, just as anticipated, the neighborhood had lost power. We made plans to stay at Dave & Maggie’s house, picked up Lucas from the sitter and went home to pack an overnight bag. {It is so weird to go into a dark house, knowing you can’t flip any switches.} We grabbed our essentials and Brent shut off the water to house and drained the pipes, hoping that would save us from frozen or burst pipes when we returned. {I am thankful that I actually had a front door key to our house on Saturday night. In the three and a half years we’ve lived there, that was the first time I needed a key to unlock the front door; I always drive into the garage and enter the house that way.} It was 1am before we settled in at Dave & Maggie’s.
Sunday morning, Brent checked on the house about 9am. It was 49 degrees!!! He not only found a cold house, but a small pile of snow that had somehow blown its way into the house by the patio door. We anxiously waited for a phone call from a neighbor that the power had been restored. And we waited. And waited. About noon, we finally had power (so much for "first thing"). Brent went back to the house to make sure the heat was running and returned about 1pm to pick Lucas and me up. I was frazzled because we were planning to have people over at 5pm Sunday night to celebrate Lucas’ birthday. I wanted to get home and decorate the birthday cake and make food, not to mention stop by the grocery store and clean up the house.
We returned home to start the to-do list and Brent turned on the water – we
thought everything was in order. Then, I needed water at the kitchen sink and nothing came out. Not even a drip. He investigated and discovered that there was snow piled up on top of the electrical box in the storage closet in our basement. This had nothing to with the kitchen water issue, it only created another issue. Since melting snow and electricity don’t mix, Brent called Ben, our electrician, to take a look. Ben arrived about 2:30pm on Sunday afternoon and although it was messy, there weren’t any safety issues.
There was still no water in the kitchen and it turns out that part of the pipe did freeze, even with our best precautions. Brent called Matt, our friend and trusty contractor, he and his family had been out of town but he assured us he would stop by that evening to put a new junction in the pipe and we’d be set. Until then, no water for the whole house. That meant no hand washing, showering, toilet flushing or dishes. We called our birthday party guests to tell them to use the restroom before they arrived. :)
The food was in the oven, the cake decorated, house picked up and birthday boy was ready to be the center of attention. Matt arrived half-way through dinner and slipped in to fix the pipe. Water! Remember the snow inside the house by the patio door on Sunday morning? Well, the electrical box is directly below that spot. When the house work was done to put on new vinyl siding from the hail storm, Matt thought that perhaps something wasn’t caulked or insulated properly. He would stop by in the daylight on Monday to take a look.
The weekend ended on a high note because Lucas had a great birthday party. However, it was a long road to get there. Those 24 hours were long and stressful (although the hands on the clock turned very fast while preparing for the birthday party). Both Brent and I probably had high blood pressure for most of Sunday afternoon, but we did not snap at each other, I did not go into labor and Lucas was well-behaved. A success.
We are thankful for dear friends who let us crash at their house overnight and for an electrician and contractor who make house calls on bitterly cold Sundays. I wouldn’t trade our small town life and good people for anything.
