Story of the Day 1/ 06/ 2014

It got colder.
It was very cold by the time we managed to crawl out from under our imitation down blankets, this morning.
And , it got colder as the day progressed.
I called the electric company.
They are expecting power to be restored by Thursday.
Thursday.
Today is Monday.
And the temperature is headed into the negative numbers. Fahrenheit.
With windchill, we are being told to expect it to be -45 degrees. Without windchill, -16.

I am trying to think of whom we can stay with.....the number of people is small.
We have several friendly neighbors across the street. Their power is not out, Power to our side and the street behind us is out.
I run over the list of possibilities.
There is the couple at the end of the block, senior citizens.
There is the friend right across from us, who is on chemo.
There is the neighbor at the other end, who has 5 other relatives, including a baby staying with her.
None of these are good options, because Sarah is now running a temperature.
She is also threatening to throw up off and on, as the day progresses.

I call Harriet.
Harriet lives a long block away. Very long , if you cannot take the short cut.
Without the shortcut it is something like a three block hike over snow that is deep and has not been plowed, but she has 4 bedrooms, 3 of which are empty.
She also has power. Electric, heat, hot water.
She says, "Come on over!" And even sounds happy about it, and this AFTER I have explained that Sarah is ill.

We wait until evening, we are still stubbornly hoping our own power will come on.
Our driveway is , as I said in yesterday's story, well shoveled, but the street has still not been plowed.
My husband and son pack Sarah and me up in the car and drive us to Harriet's.
The two of them have decided that they will tough it out in our cold house. They have two reasons for this. First, they want to go to synagogue , in the morning, and our house is a lot closer to the synagogue, and second, they like their own beds.
Oh, there is also that third reason, the one my sister Kim refers to as the defective Y chromosome. There are moments when you realize it does not have a leg to stand on - or , at least, it only has one so it tends to have wobbly logic ( unlike the X, which has two.)
The guys seem to think they will be fine in our house where I keep expecting ice to start forming on the inside of the windows.

When we get to Harriet's street we see a large work van stuck across both lanes.There is no way to get past it, not in the car.
We get out and hike the rest of the way.
Then the guys go home.

Harriet feeds us and offers us that most delectable luxury of a shower in a bathroom that has heat, and Sarah and I go off to sleep in a bed piled high with comforters, because even though Harriet's house has power, it is still struggling against the extreme cold.

In the morning, my husband and son wake up to find that the house, with the fireplace going, and the bathtubs filled with hot water, and pots of hot water set around trying to bop up the indoor temperature just a bit, is a nice and toasty 34 degrees.

We expect them to join us, at Harriet's, tonight.