For whatever reason, Mother Nature decided to dump three years worth of snow on the Mid-Atlantic in two days, leaving gleaming white piles of "pain-in-the-ass" all over the place. I actually think it looks beautiful out, and if it were just a matter of being snowed in, I wouldn't mind. That is a perk of being married to an educator - when the rest of the city still needs to drive through the madness to get to the office, I get my hubby here with me!
My problem with this winter wonderland started around 10PM Friday night when the power went out. Both of my daughters (who should have been asleep) came up the stairs screaming bloody murder. I walked around, gathered some candles and my husband got a fire going in the fireplace. I gathered pillows and blankets, we pulled out the sleeper sofa and went to bed. I say went to bed rather than went to sleep because while the three of them cuddled on the bed, I was on the couch part, squished and cold.
When the dog decided it was time for the day to begin at 6:30 the following morning, I was annoyed to see the power had yet to return. The hubby got the fire going again and I figured out how to keep the kids entertained and fed in the only warm room in the house. I got creative and cooked hot dogs over the fire and stored the milk outside in the snow. As the day went on we realized there was less and less chance of our power being restored, so we shipped 2 kids to my brother's for the night and picked up Chinese food. Our neighbor borrowed a generator so we got our furnace going and one lamp, but I was jonesing pretty bad for Internet and the local news. My husband called the power company and was told we should have our power back no later than Friday. FRIDAY!!!! That was still 6 days away!
Sunday we woke up, loaded the boys into the truck and headed out on Mission Find a Freaking Generator. Our neighbor's friend was coming to reclaim theirs, so we couldn't risk failing this quest we were on. We began by heading south to the Home Depot in Washington, Pa. They were expecting a shipment of between 50-75 generators. When we arrived we were told 50 "magic" tickets had been handed out already. We could wait but we weren't guaranteed anything. It was like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. A large group of people were gathered by the lighting department, clutching their golden tickets. One gentleman said he was thinking about selling his ticket to somebody without one.
This was the first time in all of the craziness that I felt a bit defeated. A man was really talking about taking advantage of people who just wanted to take care of their homes and families. A woman next to him quickly proved to me that good wins out, though. She offered to call me when the shipment came so we could take the little boys for breakfast and said she would listen for anybody giving up and handing their ticket off. After 2 hours in Washington, though, there was still no word of the truck arriving, and we decided to try our luck at another Home Depot in Bridgeville, Pa. As we pulled into the parking lot, a friend called and said he had bought a generator for us in Allison Park, Pa. We met him there, he returned it and we bought it.
Our tour of the Pittsburgh area wasn't over, though. A coworker had offered to let us borrow a small generator he owned, s we headed to Turtle Creek and then finally made it back home. All told, we drove 110 miles. I will say, coming home, hooking it all up, switching on the television and checking my email made it all worth it! We were able to get three neighbors up and running as well between the 2 generators.
Finally, Monday afternoon our power returned and I began to clean up and organize the mess that had materialized while the power was out. I think I'll appreciate flipping a light switch a bit more for a few days. It amazes me how we don't even realize the things we take for granted. Even though the whole thing got stressful, I can honestly say Joe and I never lost our cool with each other or the kids. We worked as a team and now we are ready for round two that is supposed to blow in later today!
I am going to ignore the ugly in the whole experience and celebrate the neighbors who came together, the strangers looking out for each other, and the family that reached out to help! Even two feet of snow can't freeze the hearts of Pittsburghers!
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