At first it was beautiful …

PJ and I spent most of the weekend without electricity. Our power went out on Saturday around 1 pm and didn’t come back on until this afternoon at 2.

At first the snow was kind of fun. I enjoy shoveling snow, so I shoveled the back deck and started taking pictures of the house. I even worked out with our Biggest Loser DVD.

The power went out just before we left to go to the women’s basketball game (and even though we lost, it was a fun game). So, we walked to campus in the snow and then walked home afterwards. On the way home, we passed one someone we knew who lives near us. His power was back on, so we happily kept walking only to find that our power was still out.

The walk to and from campus was beautiful. We had gotten about 8 inches of snow, and everything was covered in a gorgeous white blanket. And it wasn’t too cold.

While our water heater is gas-powered, and we therefore had hot water, our heating requires electricity and all of our kitchen appliances are electric. And, just as importantly, our garage door is electric. When the power goes off, there’s no way to get into the garage.

So, when dinner time came, we had to walk back down our hill. We had a nice dinner and then went to see The Young Victoria. We then walked home to house that was dark, but still not too horribly cold. We each got a blanket, lit some candles, and listened to Mountain Stage on the radio. All in all, a fairly good evening considering the circumstances.

Then Sunday came. We walked to Casa Nueva for our usual breakfast and then each went to our respective office to warm up and do a little work/surf the internet. A little after noon we walked home. Still no electricity. And even thought the roads were clear, we couldn’t get out cars out of the garage. So, when dinner time came, we walked back down the hill, etc.

By Sunday evening, we were starting to tire of the chill and all the walking. PJ called the electric company (again) to see when power would be restored. They promised to have it back on sometime Monday. We were starting to lose our minds.

But we made it through the night. Waking up this morning and getting out of bed was the hardest part. It was soooooo cold in our house. You could see your breath as your breathed. The cats looked unhappy, and we jut wanted to be warm and have some coffee. We walked to campus (again) and hoped that the power would be on before we got home. I called home around 2, and the answering machine picked up, which meant the power was back on!

PJ walked home, opened the garage, and went shopping at Kroger. When I was done with work, he came and picked me up — my poor tired legs could not walk up the hill again! We had dinner at home and are now enjoying the slowly warming house with lights and computer access!

Here are a few of the pics I took before the lights went out and as we walked to the ballgame on Saturday. I kept thinking I would take more pics while the lights were out, but it was just too cold to worry about picture-taking!