The Power of Electricity!

As many of you already know, it's been an eventful week at Chez Fasciotto. Being a household of teachers, we never complain about snow days. When the prospect of a snowy gift showed up Monday night, we were excited, to say the least. When we woke up on Tuesday morning, I peered out the window as Chud turned on the TV. "Jefferson County Public Schools.....Closed." The sweetest words ever to appear at the bottom of my screen! I jumped for joy in my bare feet and snuggled my way back under the covers. Ahhh........

Alas, our enjoyment was not longlasting. Tuesday was wonderful - beautiful snow, nowhere to go, a nice warm house to keep us cozy. But then Wednesday came. Grrr for Wednesday.

We woke up around midnight to the sound of trasformers blowing all over the neighborhood. We listened as branches fell all around our house and each time we said, "Where do you think that one fell?" We curled up in bed and waited for the one that would hit our own house. Then, at 3AM, the clock flickered and went out. We weren't surprised, we were ready for the power to go out. Amazingly, we were able to go back to sleep. Perhaps it was because we already knew that school was canceled...again!

We got out of bed early Wednesday morning because it was starting to get a bit cold in our house. We bundled up in our snow gear and went to check on the neighbors, or at least those that were still home. We live across the street from some elderly homeowners and I was really worried about them, so I'm glad we knocked on their doors and handed them our phone numbers. Our street doesn't get plowed, so we couldn't drive anywhere, and we decided to wait it out and stay home for a while.

The power came back on while I was napping under two blankets that afternoon. We were so relieved! We watched The Breakfast Club and learned that school was cancelled for the rest of the week! We started making plans for the projects and activities we were going to do on Thursday and Friday. Right after I called Mom to tell her not to worry anymore....our power went off again. DRAT! We started getting restless and decided to try driving up Bardstown Road to assess the damage done to the neighborhood. We got stuck on our street - twice. A neighbor helped the first time, but the second time I had to get out in the cold, dark winter to PUSH Chud's car and you can only guess how that turned out. Lots of harsh tones were used as we "discussed" that situation!

We finally got back home and decided to make the most of it. We lit every candle we could find, wrapped blankets around our shoulders, put on hats and scarves, and poured numerous glasses of wine as we played every board game we had that accomodated two players. It was actually very romantic and enjoyable. Chud said, "This is nice. It's like we have to talk to each other." We piled the sleeping bags and extra blankets on our bed, and slept quite soundly that night.

When we woke up Thursday morning, my nose was so cold I was sure it had fallen off completely. My fuzzy hat with the ear flaps was starting to get itchy, and by the time I tried to go to the bathroom I had come to the conclusion that our house had turned into a morgue. I've never been so cold indoors. It was the strangest feeling. I suggested, one more time, that we go to my Mom's house for a few days and this time, Chud had no objections. We packed our things faster than if our house was on fire! We took that Toyota Matrix and braved the unplowed streets one more time until finally we made it to the interstate.

Three nights at Mom's house was such a nice "vacation!" We spent lots of time with family and read many, many pages in our books. It was delightful...until Jordan called on Saturday to tell us our power was still out. CURSES! We headed back to a chilled house Sunday afternoon and started tossing food out of the fridge and cleaning up the yard. Luckily, there was no damage to our house, just lots of debris. All day we waited and waited and waited, but the power just wouldn't come on! We found out school was cancelled Monday, so we stayed at Jordan's Sunday night.

Yesterday, (Monday) we spent all day literally wandering around Louisville wondering what to do. We knew we'd have school today and we were not looking forward to sleeping on an air mattress and getting ready at someone else's house. Nothing against my brother, he has a great house and I'm SO glad we were able to stay there, but you know how it is. Showers are best enjoyed in the comfort of your own, warm home! We checked on the house twice yesterday before deciding to throw in the towel and go watch the UofL game with Jordo. After the game, we decided to check on the house one more time.

We drove down the street and noticed that some houses that were dark before had porch lights on! Gasp! Can it be true?? We turned down our street and my heart sank when I saw that both neighbors' porch lights were on and ours was not! I was positive we had left the light switch on and I had nightmarish flashes of phone calls to the electric company to explain that our house was the only one NOT working! Chud got out of the car and went into the house. Before I knew it, he flipped that lightswitch on and....HAAAALLLELLLUIAAAA!!! LIGHT!! ON OUR PORCH!! PRAISE JESUS!!!!!

I shrieked in the car and clapped my hands together. I jumped out and ran to the house while he turned the rest of the lights on. I hugged him and cried and said, "Thank God! We can stay in our own house!" It was amazing. I never thought I'd be so happy to see closed circuits. I felt warmer immediately. We went back to Jordan's to pack up our "refugee" belongings and headed home for the fourth and last time that day. We dropped our bags on the living room floor and went straight to bed. I think I slept with a smile on my warm face all night long.

Can you beleive I used to go camping in the snow? I used to be so tough with my sub-zero temperature sleeping back and ski jacket. I don't know what happened to me in the last few years. Maybe it's because I'm fat and married, maybe it's because I have a house and I can adjust the temperature whenever I want, or maybe it's because I feel like I deserve to be warm. Whatever the reason, you can be sure I'll never camp in the snow again...but I'll still take any snow day that comes my way. As long as the power stays on.