The Ice Storm (standard:non fiction, 1484 words)
Author: Everet	Added: Dec 25 2007	Views/Reads: 3587/2211	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Trials and tribulations during a winter storm and power outage

The Ice Storm 12/17/2007 

It was a dismal Monday morning and nothing had gone right so far. The
weather had been rainy and it was a freezing rain. It hung on the trees 
and overhead wiring and froze there. It was uncomfortable to have to do 
outside work but never the less there were many who had to brave the 
discomfort and labor in the miserable rainy conditions. 

I had been sitting at the computer station trying to write a letter to
my son who lives in “Sunny California” I had completed a goodly portion 
of the letter when the electricity went off. And then came back on 
almost instantly. This was not uncommon because the idiot in the power 
transfer station had changed power grids and was slow in making the 
switch. This usually happens when an inexperienced person is make the 
transfer. It is very frustrating when you are working on a computer and 
lose everything you have  done. It causes a stream of invectives not 
suitable  for public dissemination. 

Starting all over and trying to remember what I had previously done, I
continued with my task. Again I had reached a point where I paused to 
concentrate on what more I was going to add when suddenly the 
electricity went off again. Darn!, Darn!, Darn! and more Darn! This 
time the power was off a wee bit longer, but came on again in a few 
minutes, but then immediately went off and did not come back on.. So 
there we were sitting in a darkened house with no lights no heat, all 
electrical appliances on the fritz. The quiet was deafening!!!!! 
Nothing to do but wait and while doing that phoning the power company 
to report the outage. Little did we know this outage was going to last 
for almost week. Ruth suggested we go buy a portable generator to 
supply some electrical for the refrigerators and the heater. But me, 
the optimist said “Nah it will come back on shortly” 

On about the second day the freezers began to show sings of warming up
and I know I had made a slight error in judgement, so we decided to go 
get a generator. Ruth called Home Depot, and Lowe's to find out if any 
were in stock that we could buy. .Surprise, Surprise, Surprise , We 
were told they were all sold out, but luckily Lowe's said they had a 
shipment coming in a 1:00 P.M. in the afternoon. Consequently we 
visited their store at that time. We asked where we could find the 
generators and were told to go to the back of the store where a line 
was formed of people waiting to buy the generators. Believe me the line 
was long. We went to the back of the line which(we found out later was 
108 people long at that time. The line kept getting longer as we 
waited. 

Shortly after we got in line a store representative announced to the
people in line that “The deliver truck is one half hour out and would 
be there shortly and that it had 208 generators on board.. A policeman 
came around and it turned out he was a friend of the man in front of us 
and he went to the front of the line and counted those in front of us. 
That was when we found out we were number 108. We began to feel safer 
in that we would be getting one of those generators, but then the 
policeman told us that some of the people in line were buying more than 
one. 

Suddenly a cheer went up as the store rep. called out that the truck had
arrived and they would be loading the customers carts immediately as 
the truck was being unloaded and the line began to move. It didn't take 
long before we were at the front of the line and a generator was loaded 
on a shopping cart and we were on our way to the cash register. Then, 
to the parking lot we went. That was when I found that the box was too 
heavy for me to load onto the truck. As I was struggling with it a man, 
seeing my futile efforts, came and helped me get it onto the truck. We 
drove home and the rain was continuing and was freezing as it fell, but 
the roads were not slippery at this time. 

When we got home and the truck was in the garage Ruth and I were trying
to figure out how we were going to get that big box unloaded. I went to 
the basement and got a couple of 2x6 inch by 6 long foot boards and 
brought them up to the garage and made a ramp from the truck bed to the 
ground and we managed to let the box slide to the ground. Then I got my 
little had truck and took the box into the garage where we could un 
pack it. Little did we know that we were going to have to assemble it, 
but we soon found that out. 



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