Adrian's Blog

So I got home from work yesterday, it was cold and windy.  Rain was on the forecast.  I lazed around the house and watched TV until about 11 pm.  By this time I was pretty sure the power was going to go out, as it was absolutely raining cats and dogs and a giant wind storm was really kicking things up.

My power company, SRP, seems to have some faulty equipment in my area that they aren't going to replace until it completely dies and won't come back online, because every time there is any kind of weather that is worse than no rain and no wind, the power goes out for at least a few hours, so with the storm that was currently rolling through, I had no doubt that the power was going to go out.

I went to bed, and fell asleep.  I woke up to a giant buzzing sound outside just in time to see all the electronics that generate some form of illumination go black. "Great, the power just went out". I grab my phone, and use it as a flashlight to get my flashlight.  I look out my windows, "Yep, it's not just me". Call SRP's outage hotline.  It's in my phones address book, that's how often I use it.  I report the outage, stumble around to light a few candles so it's not completely pitch black (it makes taking bathroom breaks much easier, I generally have a night light in the bathroom for nocturnal usage), and go back to bed knowing that it's going to take a few hours for SRP to respond.  This was at about midnight.

I next wake up to the dogs barking wildly at the SRP truck outside.  It's 3 something in the morning.  Thank goodness.  I'm frigid... "Why is it so cold? I have gas heat."  Then it hits me, I might have gas heat, but with no electricity to turn the blower motor, the heat will never kick on. I'm really shivering at this point.  I stumble into the kitchen and look at the wall mounted thermometer.  The air temp in the house is 58 degrees Fahrenheit, a solid 10+ degrees colder than the coldest setting I'd ever let the house get. "SRP is here, the power should come back soon".

I bundle up and get back in bed.

After much tossing and turning, I next wake up to the sound of silence and uncontrollable shivering.  The SRP truck is gone.  I still don't have power.  I look outside across the street.  Their porch light is on.  It's almost 5 in the morning.  I check the temp.  It's 51 degrees in the house and 41 outside.  I can't seem to warm up.  I call the outage hotline again.  They know I still don't have power, they're troubleshooting. There's a small cluster of houses down my alley that still don't have power.  I'll get a call when it should be back on.  I'm exhausted and can't stay awake.

I next wake up to my alarm on my phone.  It's 6 am.  Still no power.  It's overcast outside and really dark.  I consider taking a shower so that I can just go into work, but realize that it would be kind of difficult to do with no lights.  I consider making a cup of coffee, but realize that I can't because my coffee maker won't work without power.  I am still uncontrollably shivering... I layer on more clothes, trying to warm up.  It's now 48 degrees in the house.  I decide to go back to bed, so I reset my phone's alarm to 7:30 am, in hopes that it will be light enough outside to shine in my bathroom's window and make taking a shower easier, either that, or the power will come back before then.  I turn my bedroom light on so that when the power comes back, it'll wake me up.

I pass out.  My alarm goes off.  I am uncontrollably shaking.  All I want to do is go back to sleep. Still no power.  It's light outside, so I go into the bathroom and start the hot water.  One of the beauties of having a gas hot water heater, is it uses no electricity.  It's entirely self contained, save the gas line, and water pipes.  It has a pilot light (which didn't blow out with the storm, thank goodness, it's outside in a water shed), and as long as it's lit, regulates the water temperature to whatever it's supposed to be at.

The hot water starts.  I switch the water flow to the shower head, and start turning up the cold water until the temp is within the non-scalding range, which considering how cold I was, probably wasn't that warm to begin with.  I get in, and over the next few minutes, start turning down the cold water flow until I can barely stand the hot water.  Despite all this, I still feel frigid.  I feel my outer limbs starting to warm up, but at my core, feel extremely cold.  Since I still don't have power, my bathroom fan isn't running, and I have to say, it's amazing at how foggy a bathroom can get when you have no fan to suck out the freshly moistened air, from the fairly hot water streaming out of the shower head. I go through my usual shower routine to get clean, then just stand there under the shower head trying to warm up.  Every minute or two, I turn down the cold water a bit, and suck up the warmth.  Not much times goes by and the cold water is shut off completely.  The hot water temp has plateaued.  A few more minutes, and it's starting to cool down.  I shut the water off and get out and dry off as quickly as possible.  I throw 4 layers of clothes on because I'm still freezing cold, and head into work.  Outside, it's soaking wet, and freezing cold (for Phoenix).

I get to work, and it's freezing there as well.  Apparently, there was some power loss and no heat over night.  I'm really glad I put so many layers of clothes on.

At almost 9 am, I get a phone call from SRP, the power should be back.  I breath a sigh of relief.  I just have to get through the day.  I can't seem to warm up.

I struggle through the afternoon to stay awake.  The crappy night's sleep is really starting to take it's pound of flesh.

5 pm rolls around. Even though I got to work a little late, I decide to make the time up later in the week, and go home, hoping that the power really is back on.

I get home.  The porch light is on, I breath a sigh of relief.  I go inside.  It's a cozy 72 degrees inside.  I sit down on my couch.  The next thing I know, it's almost 9 pm.

I eat some dinner, jump on the internets, check my email, watch a few YouTube videos of some of my subscriptions, and decide to write this blog post.

I think I'll go take another nice warm shower simply because I still feel a little chilled at the core, then go to bed because I'm still really tired.

Tomorrow is a new day.