Bomb Cyclone

Today I am thankful for heat and electricity. We were without both for more than twenty-four hours this weekend thanks to the "bomb cyclone" nor'easter that hit most of this coast on Friday. Wild and ferocious winds whipped snow and tree limbs to the ground and helped knock out power to half a million people.

Our power flickered on and off at least a dozen times on Friday morning, and I began to think we would be spared from the predicted power outages since it kept coming back on. Then, around 1PM, the power went out and stayed out. We read books and played imagination games and completed as much homework as we could. We ate tuna sandwiches for dinner by the last rays of sunlight coming through the windows and got ready for bed by flashlight.

We all gradually added more layers as the temperature inside the house dropped. My California Grandma was wrapped up like the little match girl by the time we all headed to sleep at 9 o'clock. To keep us warm Bryan slept with the boys in their big bed and the girls slept with me in mine. I covered Grandma with so many blankets that she had to push some off in the night.

This is what snuggling with your sister for warmth under several blankets looks like.

Good news, when we woke up at 6:30 the next morning the temperature inside the house had only dropped down to 57 degrees, a chilly but still safe number. We shivered and chattered and got ourselves out of the house and into Philadelphia in search of a museum that still had electricity and warmth.

The original estimate was that we wouldn't get power back on until Wednesday. Wednesday seemed like it was a long way away. We even booked a hotel starting Sunday night, just in case the power didn't come back on. Thankfully, mid-afternoon on Saturday I got a text from my neighbor telling me that the power was back on. It took us several more hours to finish our adventure and get back home, but when we walked into a warm house, I almost cried from relief.

I've been thankful ever since for simple things like overhead lights in the bathroom and the ability to watch a movie as a family in our living room. As of church yesterday, there were still at least twenty families without power and enough school personal stuck on closed roads that school was canceled for today. I have been saying prayers of gratitude for power and the people that worked hard to bring it back to us.