Another Power Outage Adventure ~ 10/7/14

The best laid plans always go awry when the power goes out. About 7:00pm last night it went, and there were no storms or high winds. We have our procedures in place by now. First call Consumers Ed to report it. Next check with our driveway neighbors to see if it's all of us or just us (it's never just us, but we check anyway :-) Then we take a walk to see if we can see what's up. Neighbor Confab on the driveway:

The Selfs went back in to light their fire, Jeffers headed out for dinner, and we carried on down the road. Jeffers had seen emergency vehicles to the east so there we went, and promptly met our other neighbor Gretchen with her friend, Jan.

Gretchen and Jan gave us a big piece of the picture. They had seen the tree fall and take down the wire, live wire. It was still humming and sparking by the time we got there.

The Fire Department was on duty waiting for Consumers Ed to show up. Gretchen, Jan, and Fireman Dave went to school together (too dark for a good pic).

Consumers Ed showed up, surveyed the situation, told the firemen to not let anyone in the woods (really?), and took off to turn off the power to the wire. We walked home in the dark, read books by candlelight, went to bed, and hoped for the best.

About 2:00 am the power came back and I was happy to be awakened by all of our lights being on in the house :-)This morning we put away the candles and flashlights (but not too far away) and scraped up the candle wax from the counter. Cheers! 

Much better result than last November

The Power Went Out - 11/17/13

With the storm mostly passed, I thought I was safe but at 9:45pm the power went out here in Ada. Well, not all of Ada. I could look out my window and see our neighbors west, south, and north with their lights still on. The five households connected on the hill were in the dark.

Monday morning I was still in the dark. Driving out for breakfast and viewing the area, there were many blacked-out areas. With no hot water or power, I started to check out area hotels and decided on Country Inn and Suites ~ refrigerator in room, complimentary breakfast, and view of the highway. Ah well. They had power. Unfortunately, the room doors close so loudly I could hear them all night long. The hotel clerk explained that they were fire doors so that if the room next door caught fire, I wouldn't be burned in my bed.

The damage in our neighbor's yard was bad; a large branch took down a pine tree and both were resting on the wires, the strain of which broke the power pole.

The tree guys were there Monday morning clearing the wires but why would Consumers show up here to relieve 5 homes when thousands were out of power?  Right - they wouldn't. The cats were put in the garage and I headed for the hotel.

I early-checked into the hotel, and the only walking distance restaurant was Malarky's. I spent a few hours there watching IonTV and savoring a perch dinner and Bells Amber Ale.

Tuesday morning, I let the cats out and headed out to meet my son for lunch and run a few errands. It was too early to be back in my hotel room so after I put the cats back in late afternoon, I took an hour walk through Meijer Gardens. It's always my back-to-nature-feel-good place.

Wednesday morning I headed to work after extending my hotel reservation to Friday. In the afternoon I received a text-photo from a neighbor that a consumers crew was there installing a new pole, and my hopes were up.

But what to do with the hotel reservation ~ checkout time at 11:00am. I left it as it was and received a voice mail from another neighbor as I was driving home at 4:15 that the power was on. I continued on home to be sure our house was good and then high-tailed it to the hotel to check out. Five minutes to pack and throw my things in the car and then check-out. The hotel clerk very kindly charged me for just the day rate and I was out of there. Cheers to getting back to a normal life!