We were without power from 7:50p.m. Thursday (5th) to 2:00a.m. Monday (9th). Made for an interesting weekend. Apparently the strong, wild winds blew down some power poles on Sage Creek in the Hoodoo area somewhere. I don't know if a tree blew on the wire or if it just snapped a pole and the rest dominoed. There were reports of anywhere from 18 to 13 poles down. The person I talked to for Rocky Mountain Power said 13. At any rate they had to get new poles from Powder River at Casper. That was on Friday, then getting them up and running took the rest of the time. They brought in extra crews and equipment, but the mud and muck, plus more strong winds made it very difficult. The first time I called the recorded report said 1800 homes were without power. Next time I called it was 800 without power and the last time I called it was 180. So they were making progress. I can only imagine what a nightmare that must have been putting up those poles and stringing wire in all that mess, bogging down in the mud and battling strong winds at the same time. I am grateful that there are people that do that sort of work though.
We were fine here. Gma has a nice little propane heating stove which kept her house warm and comfy. Just no fan to circulate the air. She told me I could run around a circulate it. Then she had me find the kerosene lamps. They actually had kerosene in them. We also had a drawer full of candles and a drawer full of flashlight batteries for the six flashlights I found. So we were pretty well off. Larry Rankine came by to tell us to be very conservative with the water and the water plant was also our of power. I filled some jugs with water for drinking and cooking, just in case, but we didn't need them as we had pressure for the duration. I did take all our refrigerator and freezer stuff to the Town House and made several trips back and forth for that kind of food. Gma has an electric cook stove as well as a gas one. So we used the gas one. She is well prepared. She has been through power outages before. Come to think of it she lived at a time before power.
Joe and Joy stopped to see us Friday on their way to Cody. They arrived just as Larry was leaving so Joe had a good visit with him. At that same time I had a phone call from the Chocolatier. He had goodies for me for my birthday from the Hawaii Steeles. Then Ed called and I cut him short. Then Steve Willis called about some pictures he had sent me on a disc. I cut him short too, but he found out what he needed to know. Sheesh! It's all or nothing.
Pat came for her Gma fix on Saturday so she got in on some of this pioneer living. She stayed at the Town House overnight. We also had Church Saturday evening with a carry in dinner and brief Parish Meeting. Pat got in on that too. Sunday was relatively quiet and peaceful even though we still didn't have power. Pat left about 1:00p.m. Said the wind wasn't as bad that day as when she came down on Sat. Then when we woke up Monday morning we had power again. After Senior lunch I brought back all the stuff from the Town House.
Many of the ranchers up river had generators for power, but lots had to haul water for their livestock. I'm glad we don't have livestock.
Some of our friends in town were really concerned about Gma and wanted to help move her to town, but she wouldn't go. The temps were rather warm - in the 40s so we were fine. If it had been sub-zero temps I might have moved her whether she wanted to go or not, but as it was she didn't need to go. She was rather vocal about it too. She really would have a more difficult time in the Town House. Its all unfamiliar territory and there are threshholds in every doorway that she would have to lift her walker over. It wouldn't be too convenient for her anyway. Better she could stay in her own home.
Glad you two had an easy time of it.
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