Yesterday morning I overslept. The house was pitch black and absolutely silent. When I staggered to the bathroom and looked at the little atomic clock and saw that it was 9:30, it dawned on me. Our power is out. I called the power company, fed the animals, argued with the dog who was not going outside to take care of her business in the dark, woke the kids and went to work.
While at work, did I worry about my teenage poppets home alone without a working refrigerator, stove, hard telephone, fan or air conditioner? No. I worried all day about the pretty little miniature lemon meringue pies I’d made up the night before to take to my sorority potluck dinner that were languishing in the refrigerator. Would they stay cool enough? Did I remember to use pasteurized eggs for the meringue? Will they be just little puddles when I get home or worse yet, give all my beloved sorority sisters salmonella?
I had hoped to return home to a cool well lit house but luck wasn’t with me. Spouse had fled to dinner and shopping with the kids and the dog was grumbling and the house was sweltering. My little pies however, were still cool and the egg carton did indicate that I had indeed remembered to use pasteurized eggs. By the way, don’t You forget to use pasteurized eggs anytime you make something that doesn’t cook all the way through like meringues and mayonnaise and cookie dough the kids might eat raw. Poppet worries about these things.
I would like to report that my little pies were the hit of the potluck, but no, they were pretty soggy. When I came home from my delightful evening out, Spouse and Bunny were playing in the kitchen by the light of a camping lantern. At bedtime, Spouse tried calling the electric company again to see if they had an estimated repair time for us yet. He waited on the line being assured that his call was very important to them for about half an hour and he began to worry that the battery on the cell phone was giving out. I suggested he plug it in so it can charge while he’s waiting.
To talk to the electric company.
About having no power.
What can I say? When the A/C powers down, so do my little grey cells.
Aside: When I told my mother that we lost power and had no air conditioning last night, she said “Why didn’t you turn on the fans?”, so I guess I come by my flakyness honestly.
After about 45 minutes, we were informed that our call that was important to them (for about the tenth time) and may be monitored for quality assurance. After another ten minutes, we were connected to The Evil One. In his usual easy going, make no waves manner, Spouse gave her our address and asked if she could tell him when we might get power again. The Evil One was quite put out that we had interrupted her evening with such petty concerns and in the nastiest tone of voice since Leona Helmsley spotted a heel mark on her hotel lobby floor, she snapped “Our records indicate that your outage is due to weather. We don’t HAAAVE to give you an estimated repair time when it’s weather related.” Um. OK. Spouse, bless his little heart, never skipped a beat. He said, “I take it then that this phone call is one of the ones that is not being monitored for quality assurance.” She disconnected.
The upshot of all this is, we had a hot sleepless night and awoke to a hot smelly house and the dog refused to speak with me until the power came back on at 10:30 and she had A/C again. Tonight after work I get to throw everything out that was in the fridge and the deep freeze (thank goodness it’s trash night!) and scrub them both until they shine. I believe tomorrow will be dedicated to stocking back up at the Farmer’s market and the butcher’s and (I shudder to say this, Sam’s Club). Hey, desperate times call for desperate measures.
I hope you all have a cool, stank free weekend filled with flaky pies and flaky family.
12 responses so far ↓
1
blackbird
// Jun 20, 2008 at 8:19 pm
If you think the power *might* go out you are *supposed* to turn on everything in the house - to save up all the electricity you CAN in the WIRES.
2
Anglophile Football Fanatic
// Jun 20, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I think I would’ve headed to a hotel. I could not do that in this heat. You are a brave woman.
3
Jen on the Edge
// Jun 20, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I feel your pain, I really do.
Lucky for us, we don’t have to talk to humans when our power goes out. We go through an automated system and then the automated system kindly calls us after the power comes on, just to let us know our power is on.
4
Ree
// Jun 20, 2008 at 8:48 pm
That happened to us on January 1st. Yes, that’s right. New Years Day.
Luckily, it was cold enough we just threw everything outside and called it good.
5
MommasTantrum
// Jun 20, 2008 at 11:10 pm
This is why my lovely Poppet you should have a backup generator…so you can plug in your cell phone to recharge it, and get some little a/c for your bedroom window. (I too would have made the same comments…so it probably wasn’t so much the heat as the panic of the tarts going bad!)
6
witchypoo
// Jun 21, 2008 at 2:16 am
I dream of having a backup generator, but during a power outage, I fear it would be stolen.
7
Badger
// Jun 21, 2008 at 9:11 am
Holy crap, dude. I can’t imagine not having power and a/c in this weather for ANY length of time. I think I’d have to move.
8
The Apron Queen
// Jun 21, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Your button is correctly placed & linked! Thank you! Send me an e-mail at jmlsdi3 at yahoo dot com with your BLOG NAME and mailing address to receive your vintage apron! Lisa
9
HRH
// Jun 21, 2008 at 6:19 pm
OMG. I am so sorry. I saw that several areas were out of power but didn’t know it was you. UGH. I think you should leave the dog at home and check into a hotel. Or just check all your food into some sort of food hotel. Hey, I just came up with a new business…feel free to initiate that…I don’t have the time.
10
Leslie
// Jun 22, 2008 at 8:48 am
I have to report that I thought the mini lemon pies were delicious! Had this happened to us for that long we would have been in a hotel and I would have been running a really long extension cord to my neighbor’s house to hook up the freezer and fridge so I didn’t lose too much of my food!
11
Janet
// Jun 23, 2008 at 8:00 am
We lost power Saturday evening for no apparent reason, just as it was getting dark. Fortunately it wasn’t that hot, but our water is pumped in, so without electricity we lost that too. Plus the Queen is squeamish about the dark, so we took them to Dairy Queen and took the cell phones with us to call our phone. Once the answering machine came back on, we knew we had power. Fortunately it was only about 6 hours, but we never did figure out what it was. It was a beautiful balmy day, not a could in sight. We chalked it up to either copper theft or squirrel suicide.
12
Janet
// Jun 23, 2008 at 8:00 am
Oh, and kudos to Spouse for his clever remark!
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