The Frigid South

Well it’s been an interesting week here in the “Frigid Zone” When we moved to the south we were all happy we were leaving the severe storms behind. No more wind storms and weeks without power etc. It might be a tad warm in the summer but it would be better weather. Yeah Right!

Well I blogged how we drive into Ike when we first arrived here. Now we have the joy of being in the middle of an ice storm. It started out as the worst storm in 13 years and has now been upgraded to the worst storm ever. Are we luck, we get to make history. So here is a rundown on how the week has gone. Forgive me if I get some things out of order I have not been writing them down as I should have been.

Tuesday we had a ton of snow fall Ken had been out by the bus stop and it was freaky out there. When I opened the door I could hear nothing but cracking ice. He came back in the house and said to heck with it, he called in and decided to work from home. APH sent everyone home at noon anyways so it was just as well he didn’t go in. The roads were a mess. I ventured out after noon to get some stuff from the grocery store and that was about it for us. We stayed snuggled up in the house thankful we had power. When I went to bed I shut my computer down in case we had an outage. It turns out it was a good thing to do.

Wednesday we woke up to a power outage. Ken called work and they said there was no work that day. We spent the day covering doors with blankets and moving the animals to the dining room area. We left the ferrets upstairs and just covered the cage as it was not that cold. We snuggled under the blankets and stayed warm.
Thursday ken got up for work and went to the bus stop. The bus company assured him the buses were on time and he waited and waited out there. Finally frozen he came back into the house and woke me. I got up and drove him to work. After dropping Ken off I went to Lowes to see if they had any generators. There was none there but the fellow I asked told me that he heard Home depot had some. I jumped in the car and headed off. I was lucky enough to get a Generator but of course there were no heaters around. If I had not had to drop ken off at work we would have missed out. Someone was watching over us. I also could not find anything bigger than a 2 gallon gas can. So I got 6 of them. When I got home with the generator, Susan the lady from the next door asked if I wanted help to unload it. She had the idea we would slip it out of the car and then slide it on some cardboard. While she was getting cardboard Bob the other neighbor came over and between the three of us we got to the house. While we were doing that a couple more came over and we got it up the stairs. I set it up inside cause it was cold outside and then took it out later in the day after I had gotten some gas and could lock it up. I had a small heater from Canada I used to use under my desk to keep my feet warm. It was old and didn’t put off near enough heat to heat the room but it took the chill off and for that we were thankful. Ken Called Jan the previous owner of the house and asked about the fireplace. It had not been cleaned in about 15 years so we did not dare to use it. Ken spent the day calling around for space heaters but no one had any.
Kens parents decided to drive down here to bring us a care package. They would leave their house on Friday, stop about 100 miles away for the night at a hotel then come in on Saturday, stay the day then leave Saturday evening and stop at the same hotel and finish driving home on Sunday. Insane people but boy do we appreciate them. I could not find heaters, winter boots for ken, blankets or even presto logs in case we did get the fireplace going.

Friday I put in a call to the vet as I was worried about Strabo. The vet upped his medication a while back because his stomach had started to swell again from the backed up fluid from his heart. It was not only ‘not working’ but it was looking worse. I made some phone calls and I got a hold of a chimney mane to check to see if we can burn logs in the fireplace. He agreed to come out on Saturday. I went out before picking ken up from work and wandered around the stores to help stave off insanity of sitting around the house. While I was out I found some space heaters at Walgreens of all places. We got the last 2 there. It would be warm in the house that night. When I picked up ken we got more gas for the generator and headed home. Pulling into the drive way we found the neighbor’s tree had dropped another branch and this time it tore out our power and cable lines. This is annoying more because they know the tree is dying and they refuse to take it down. We could not close the gate because the power line was on the tree that was against the gate so we walked the dogs to potty that night. The vet called back before supper and started talking about putting needles in Strabo’s stomach ton draw off the liquid and it ‘might help’ for a while. I said no at that point it would be keeping him alive for me, not for him. There would be no quality of life for him. So we decided to put him to sleep. I could not wait to do it or I would find some reason to talk myself out of it. I am not strong like some people who can take a weekend to say goodbye. So we made the long drive to the vets. And we held him as he drifted off. There were a lot of tears and it was very hard to say good bye to my little baby.

Saturday Ken’s parents showed up and they helped up to get the furnace hooked to the generator so we get a little heat in the house. The blowers don’t work as good as if it was on electricity but they work and we are warm again. The chimney guy found a critter living in the chimney. Much as I regretted evicting the poor raccoon we did need our fireplace so off he went to find a new home. I hope he could find a new rental. Ken’s parents bought us 4 cases of presto logs to burn in the fireplace which helps even with the furnace going. Ken’s parents got us both winter boots. I had been using my hiking boots, Ken got a winter jacket and we got more blankets then we can shake a stick at. We also got a small electric burner for cooking. We had been using a Colman stove in the house (yeah I know bad bad) we got another heater from them and just tons of stuff that I can’t remember. The vet’s office sent us a bouquet of flowers for Strabo. That was sweet of them and I will have to call and thank them. Of course today we go out with the parents and we see everything we could not find previously LOL make us look like we didn’t even try to look around. The rest of the block got power today. Thanks to the neighbors tree we did not get any. I am still trying to get a hold of the insurance company. It might be Monday before I can do that.

Sunday The electrician called today. He has our parts so I can hope that we can get power by Wednesday or so. Internet by Friday. I am posting this from a local restraunt so I could check my mail. I will make updates as I can.