Winter Wallop!

Here in Oklahoma we have had plenty of excitement over the past few days. Wednesday the local news channels began a constant barrage of warnings concerning a winter storm that was heading our way. Being the strong willed people we are in Oklahoma, most of us would normally take these warnings with a grain of salt. But after the amount of damage we saw during the Christmas Eve storm this year people were a little more willing to prepare for the worst.

On Wednesday afternoon Jed and I noticed that the store parking lots in town were packed with people stocking up on water and food. We also heard reports that any stores selling power generators were sold out. Of course we giggled a little to think that after all this panic the storm might not even affect our area.

There was no need for the giggles. The storm hit Oklahoma Friday with a vengeance. Areas to our north got lots of snow but the worst part of the storm was the freezing rain that knocked out area power grids. Our power in Frederick went down Friday at 4pm and we quickly realized that with no heat and no lights it's no fun when things get dark around 5. Jed and I have been staying with his grandparents for the past few weeks so we did have some company. Needless to say we didn't let it get us down. We wound up spending about 3 hours playing dominos by lantern and candle light. If you haven't tried it believe me its much more fun when you really can't see your hand.

Around 8pm our power came back on and there was great rejoicing heard throughout the land. Still we knew that it might not last so we turned the heat as high as it would go and headed for bed. Sometime during the night, probably around 1am, we lost power again, so the house was nice and chilly by the time we woke up. We made some phone calls and heard from a very reputable source that there were about 20 miles of power line down between us and the next town, it would probably be 3 or 4 days before we would regain power.... and it was getting cold. Luckily Jed's grandparents have a wood burning fireplace and plenty of food so we invited some friends over, and sat down to a game of cards as close as we could get to the fireplace.

To make a long story short we were without power all day Saturday but it came back on much earlier than predicted and everything was up and running by late Saturday night. We were very lucky to be where we are. Jed's family in Tipton has a generator now but their power is not expected to be back until later this coming week. Family in Elgin, OK have had to leave their house in the country because their power has now been off for 2 and half days and their house was down to about 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Right now we are counting our blessings and enjoying the electricity.