Wednesday, January 8, 2014

today i was a pioneer!

This morning we awoke to discover that our power was out. (Please see also: Southerners aren't prepared to live in the cold) Naturally, we decided to stay in bed an extra 20 minutes to a) see if it came back on and b) research the situation from the warmth of the covers. Unfortunately, my main news source (Facebook, of course) isn't working on my phone any more. I don't know why. There are no updates, I've tried everything I can think of...but for the last 4 or 5 days, it won't work. It hasn't really bothered me until this morning. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FIND OUT IF THIS IS A WIDESPREAD PROBLEM IF I CAN'T USE FACEBOOK?!?! What, Twitter? That's a joke. It was too dark to take a picture, so Instagram's out. I mean seriously, people. 

I tried the local paper's webpage. Useful. They still had all of YESTERDAY'S headlines up. Very helpful. 

Finally I was able to find my electric company's webpage and report the outage. Then I found their live 'outage map' that showed all the current reported outages. That's how I discovered that my house wasn't an isolated event-- looks like all the power was out within a few miles of us. That's cool. Whatever.

By now it was way too late to get out of bed, but I just wasn't sure how to proceed with life with no power. Plus it was probably going to be really cold. And there was no way to make coffee. These are all good reasons to just call the day off and stay in bed forever.

As I listed all of the ways the No Power was ruining my life and reasons for getting out of bed, Matt was agreeing with me. Yep, it's gonna be cold. Yep, we're going to have to dig out some candles and flashlights. Yep, we can't make coffee. Agreed, agreed, agreed.

"...and...I can't get ready. I can't fix my hair with no power!!!"

At this, he was momentarily silent.

And then he responded.

"You can't do a ponytail in the dark?"

Busted. Apparently my penchant for low-maintenance hairstyles hasn't escaped his notice. That Mattie. Nothing gets by him.

"Okay fine, I can probably fix my hair. BUT NOT MY MAKEUP."

He had to agree with that. I do wear makeup. Which, for the record, I had to pack up by candlelight and bring with me to work to put on once I got here. I'll cut a lot of corners, but you couldn't pay me enough to spend a day at work sans makeup. 


Ahhh...teeth brushing by lantern-light. So romantic. Not. I was gagging from the odor of 10 differently-scented candles all burning at once. Ick.

So that's today's adventure. We made it to work only about 20 minutes late (Matt's late, that is...I'm still 40 minutes early!) after making two different stops for nourishment (Bojangle's) and fuel (Starbucks). Now my makeup is on and I can think about starting my day. Whew. So much drama...so early. And I already got a call from the power company that the power's back on, so that's good. Obviously my pioneer skills aren't really all that impressive, so I'm glad I won't have to 'rough it' tonight as well.

25 comments:

  1. Shessh that's a lot of drama for one morning!! I've only been out of power a few times and it's weird - so much less to do! One time we had a bad storm at Tech and thought maybe it would go out. My brother brought over charcoals for us haha.

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  2. I hate when the power goes out! And for your FB app, have you tried hard restarting it? Like closing it out completely? OR maybe deleting it and redownloading it? I don't know why those things work, but sometimes I've had them fix problems.

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  3. When I saw "pioneer" I thought for sure this would somehow involve the flannel shirt or something flannel. I have NO idea why haha. Even though dealing with power loss is a pain in the rear I would totally use it as an excuse to get breakfast and coffee out :)

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  4. I am pretty impressed with your pioneer skills! I think you are ready for Alaska: The Last Frontier...have you seen that show?
    Speaking of none working apps my Bloglovin App does not work.. It gives me zero updates and sometimes when I click on a blog post it gives me the wrong blog. For example I will click on Something Beautiful and it will be E's post for E, Myself and I.

    So glad the power is back on and you and Mattie do not have to "rough it" tonight.

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    1. Oooh!! My Bloglovin' app did that exact same thing for a few days! Yesterday I found an update and did that and now it's working fine again. But for a few days I was without Bloglovin' AND FB on my phone...I may as well have been a pioneer on the prairie!!!

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    2. I obviously need an update to my Bloglovin' app. Mine has been AWFUL lately. It assigns the same photo to every blog, and I can't get it to update... It shows I have 30 unread blogs but won't load any of them. Blahhh!

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    3. YES! That is exactly what mine was doing, Amanda.

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  5. so glad you had that lantern handy! I would have had my cell phone and...maybe two candles? Plus, who dosent look great by lantern light?!

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  6. Add your electric company's phone number to your contacts on your phone. You can call that and report a power outage, and usually they will have an automated system that says that other people have reported one (sometimes they will say how many) and an estimated time that it will be back on.

    If not, wait like an hour or so, and call again and you can check on the status.

    (Can you tell I had to do this Monday morning?! :) )

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  7. I hate when just the internet goes out (what am I supposed to fill my hours with??!), so I feel you when all the power goes out! Especially since it's been in the single digits for you the last 2 days. Ugh! Glad it will be back on when you get home!

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  8. Glad your power is back on, especially in this cold!!

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  9. Ughhh! That sounds awful. For future reference, I vote for staying in bed! The good news is that your pipes didn't burst. You wouldn't know this, but Facebook has been full of Athenians lamenting the mess and cost of frozen pipes! It all sounds awful! Hope this is the end to your winter woes!

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  10. Georgia cannot handle this cold! Just when I think we are getting back to our regular schedule, Nolan's schools calls and said a pipe burst and the school flooded and the roof in one of the classrooms caved in. Glad your issue was short lived!

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  11. I'm impressed that you made it to work in 20 minutes in a covered wagon, you know, being a pioneer and all. Speaking of that wagon, do the horses get to stay in the house when it's that cold?

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  12. I remember one night when our power went out as soon as we got home from work. We are big TV watchers, so we couldn't figure out what to do. We ended up going out to eat (along with a bunch of other families that had the same problem as us), and came home and played cribbage together... it was really nice to "unplug" for the evening!!!

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  13. I know this is stupid, but sometimes I get excited by power outages... like they are an exciting event or something. Until the threat of food in the refrigerator/freezer being ruined becomes a reality, and then it ceases to be exciting. Glad you survived!

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  14. Our Internet has been down all afternoon. What is going on with the world?! Also, delete your fb app and download it again. I seem to have to do this about once a year.

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  15. Don't you hate doing all that work just to brush your teeth, get dressed, and do your hair only to find out the power came back on shortly after you left?!

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  16. AUGH! I can't imagine waking up to this weather without power. You deserve a standing ovation for even getting out of bed!

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  17. AWFUL. This is such a fear of mine. See, where we live, in the country middle of no where (not really true but I like to be dramatic), where we live we have well water. No big deal until the power goes out. Well water needs an electric pump to pump the water out of the ground and when there's no electricity there is no water. NO teeth brushing, NO showers, NO toilets.... bad. news. bears. I hope it's on now!

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  18. When my power goes out (and it has a few times) I am always thankful for the gym membership. That is where I shower and get ready for work.

    Did you try uninstalling your FB app and re-downloading it? I do that if things stop working and it usually fixes it. I think that is the smartphone equivalent to turning something off and back on again.

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  19. I literally laughed outloud at this "You can't do a ponytail in the dark?" Your husband is HILARIOUS.

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  20. Mmmm, Bojangles. I love a good chicken biscuit and Bo'Berry biscuit. That might be my favorite part of your post. But, really, getting ready without power blows!

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  21. Glad your power is back on and y'all aren't roughing it anymore.

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  22. Having the power out throws such a wrench in my plans. sigh. I'm impressed you went to work at all. I'd always prefer to go back to bed :)

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