Lights ON!

My apologies for being so late with the coupon winners - I know I promised to pick them last weekend.

BUT...I live in Central MA, USA and due to a severe ice storm, my power went out - for a week!
No lights - no heat - no cable TV - no internet...ugh!

The power went out last Thursday night and my work was canceled for the first
time in the 8 years I have been there. It took all day Friday to cut and move all the trees in driveway. We spent the next day, Saturday,over at my son Henry’s apartment. Since he lives an hour west of us, the ice storm missed him, he had both heat & hot water.

My younger son, Brian moved back over there ‘til the power comes back.
Then Hank and I spent the next couple of days back home struggling to keep the house warm and the pipes from freezing.
We heated using the propane stove in the kitchen and a propane turkey fryer in the basement(we piled rocks on top and heated them up for about an hour at a time and it actually worked fairly well) We also had a coleman lantern for light that throws off some heat so we could sit at the kitchen table at night and read. Then we are just bundled up and tried to stay warm.

All the stuff in the fridge was moved to coolers on the porch and to the garage
(which became now our refrigerator) We both have hot showers and heat at
our workplaces, but the nights at home were so coooold! Not having running water causes its share of problems as well. A lot of people had to leave their houses and stay in shelters at the local schools.

Finally - on Tuesday my nephew, Seth got power back at his house so he brought his generator over and hooked it up so we had heat and hot water, the fridge
was back on, and even a few lights! Since he has two small children, he had driven down to Connecticut on Sunday and finally found a generator, as there were none to be found anywhere else. The stores here were completely out of batteries, bottled water, lanterns, kerosene heaters and anything else you tried to find. we lucked out and found a Walmart with quite a few of the small propane tanks for out lantern.

Anyway the power came back on yesterday and I am so happy that things can get back to "normal." I am WAY behind on laundry, housecleaning, Christmas shopping, and just about EVERYTHING!

But I am happy to say we are literally "all hooked up" again.

COUPON TIME - Since only 3 commentors left their e-mails, I am giving all three of them a coupon.

wyldcat62@gmail.com

wpearcy@lycos.com

heathermsc@yahoo.com

You can all check your in-boxes for some holiday goodness.
I hope you enjoy a little shopping. Happy Holidays!

Here are some pictures from last weekend:

This is the view from our bedroom window on Friday morning - branches from this tree hit the back of Brian's car and our front stairs (no damage)and just missed my SUV:
One fell on our barn...again thankfully no damage.

Here is where it snapped:

Brian's car:

A visitor on Saturday afternoon:

It was kind of pretty:

Brian and Noodles, keeping warm:

Hank & Brian moving branches from our road:

Poles, wires, and trees were down everywhere:

Our neighbor's shed:

Our road: