Mrs. Hillbilly Mom Ain't No Rock, And She Ain't No Island

 A winter's day, in a deep and dark December, WITHOUT ELECTRICITY FOR 9 HOURS!

Yep. Sitting in my basement lair last night, all cozy in my fleece jacket, mini radiator heater emanating weak waves of warmth, typing up my Saturday CENTSus on my not-so-secret blog, at 2:20 a.m., not a care in the world--

DARKNESS OVERTOOK ME!

Then New Delly bravely tried to resuscitate himself with a blue screen, while the lights flickered--

DARKNESS AGAIN!

No, sweet, sweet light signaling all was fine--

PERMANENT DARKNESS REIGNED IN THE DEEP DARK BASEMENT LAIR!

Good thing I have a tiny blue metallic LED flashlight stashed there for just such events. Even though the under-counter plug-in emergency light Farmer H has scattered throughout the Mansion came on within seconds, giving me a dim view of my lair. 

 

I waited for power to be restored. For about five minutes. Then gave up and made a visit to the NASCAR bathroom. No flushing, but I had another dim view from another plug-in emergency light. Which would have been better-utilized out in the basement proper. It was darker than The Pony's sense of humor!

I gave up on completing my two blog posts and answering comments. Headed up those 13 rail-less basement stairs by way of blue metallic LED flashlight. Although at the top of the stairs was another plug-in emergency light.

The Mansion is all-electric. No light, no heat, no water, no landline. I sighed and climbed into bed next to Farmer H, who was busy asphyxiating himself in a breather that was not working. No electricity, no breather!

"You know the power is off, right?"

"MMFPH?"

"The power is off. Since 2:20."

"I guess I don't need my breather."

At 4:30, The Pony came calling.

"Um. MOM? Oh. You're not downstairs. Did you know the power is off?"

"Yes. Since 2:20. No shower for you."

"I know. And no shaving."

"I'm sure you could get a little bowl of water from what's still in the pipes."

"Yeah. I might do that. And I'll eat something, since I'm up, and I can't shower."

The Pony left for work at 5:00, with a plan to take the alternate route past the car-repair shop, to avoid our road in case there was a pole down. We'd had rain all night, but no lighting or wind. He sent a text that the electric company had floodlights at the prison, like that's where the problem was. WE HOPE!

The electric company sent me about 10 emails over the course of the outage, reporting that we had an outage, and keeping me from getting a good snooze with their interruptions. Farmer H signed up for that notification service, with MY email!

At 7:30, power had been restored. The furnace came back on. I know, because even though finally in a deep sleep, Farmer H's EXTREMELY LOUD CLOCK RADIO ON HIS NIGHTSTAND STARTED BELLOWING COUNTRY MUSIC. Not even GOOD country music. Of course he was long gone, up to his Storage Unit Store, which is closer to town than the prison, and had electricity. Which he knew by checking on his surveillance cameras, I think.

Anyhoo... I had to get up and go around the bed to figure out how to turn off that racket. I settled down to snooze again, only to be awakened by Farmer H by text at 10:30, asking if I STILL had power. Which I did not. No furnace, no glow of the bedside phone or red radio digits. 

 

Then the electric company sent me another email that power was out again. And then one that the problem was equipment related. And then one that crews had been dispatched, and would determine a restore time. Sweet Gummi Mary! The previous crew that didn't fix the problem right should still have been within the area!

So... I've not had a very restful night. The electricity was back shortly after 11:00. Yeah. That's right. I knew because I got a couple emails. I had to trek down those 13 rail-less basement stairs to get my daily blogs done, since I needed pictures stored on New Delly. HIPPIE is barely adequate for my blogging needs.