I had plans this morning. Big plans.
I made breakfast and ran hot water to soak the dishes. I pulled out my cookbooks and told Amy that we were going to do some cooking. I planned dinner in my head (pumpkin soup) and mentally caculated the amount of housework I needed to do to make the house look the same all day (same being: slightly messy).
And then? At 8.15am as Amy and I were eating breakfast and watching cartoons, the power went out.
Snap!
Nothing.
I checked the meter box and then, finding nothing wrong (except a lack of power to said meter box) I rang Aurora (Tassie’s power providers).
Funnily enough, I was the first person to report a power outage. They said they would send a team to sort it out and I hung up.
90 minutes later, the faults message* still didn’t know where the power was out. 90 minutes after that they knew that power lines were down, but that ‘time of restoration is unknown, due to the extent of the damage’.
Now, we have tank water. Meaning that our water runs from our tank, into the pump that then pumps the water to the taps. So, if I have no power, lo and behold, I have no water.
Have you ever spent a whole day stuck inside with a toddler (weather was too shitty to be outside) with no power and no water? Also, no hot food?
Leslie, I know you have.
Needless to say, it was a shit day.
Amy spent alot of time asking for eggs and then crying when told there was no power to cook eggs with. She spent alot of time tantrumming because we couldn’t go outside. And she spent ALOT of time asking for us to ‘cook sumping!’.
Sigh.
By lunchtime, I was over it.
By 2pm I was ready to kill things.
By 3pm, I rang Aurora again, only to be told that the power had been restored to ‘all but a few’ houses.
Guess who wasn’t in the 99%?
Luckily Aurora’s technicians are pretty good and the power flicked back on at 3.45pm. I have never been so relieved in my life!
Amy got her eggs and I was able to take a break from being a human trampoline. At least to the Toddler. The little one is not so nice.
The good thing though? Nathan came home with a brand new charger for my laptop. YAY!
*You can ring the faults/emergencies line and get a computer message of where the power is out and when it is due to be fixed.
Yep. This sounds like us on Saturday. We resorted to using our mobiles to make pranks calls to places and playing indoor cricket as the weather was bad.
*Luckily* the children had gone elsewhere when it happened (stepson to his mothers and nephew to his aunties) or we would have been in the same boat as you.
We rang Aurora too and the automated message told us to call back in 4 hours!!!!!!
Oh crap! Our power went down while our UK guests were here. Just extolling the joys of country life whilst cooking our dinner when flicker, flicker and it all went dark! Fortunately we have a gas cooktop so I was able to finish the meal. Entertainment wasn’t a problem as we had a lot of catching up to do and plenty to eat and drink! But boy, was I glad we had no kids around. Needless to say, the power came back as just after we went to bed! Re cooking ‘sumping’, I suppose you could have done jacket potatoes in the woodfire – I’m assuming it was alight or you would have been bored, hungry and freezing too! We have friends who rely on tanked and filtered bore water and they have the same problem when the power goes but they are now thinking of getting a small generator for emergency use.
Glad you got the laptop charger though 😉
OK, yelling about the eggs is a bit odd. MY kids would have yelled about the video games not working.
I was afraid when I read your post title that you had fainted!
Mrs. Cs last blog post..HAIR MAGGOTS
What a nightmare of a day! Gald things are back in workign order. And now I want eggs…
Jennis last blog post..Phobia Friday: The Lazy Family Edition
Let me see … things to add to the list of things I want to do when I win the lottery – right after “Build a proper INDOOR bathroom for Veronica’s house” add “Install automatic backup generator at Veronica’s house.” There. Sorted. As soon as I win the lottery.
lceels last blog post..The Aftermath – Wordy Wednesday
I hate it when I have great plans and then they are foiled. It really does ruin the day.
Glad you are back up and running!
Kats last blog post..TT- Grateful
We have a well, and the same thing happens to us when the power goes out. No water. No flushing of the toilets.
It’s NOT fun.
Rees last blog post..The O’Horror of it All
I hear you… I had 2 small boys for 3 days without power. No phone, no water/toilet, only a fireplace for heat, TV and most of the time the clouds were so thick of snow that there was no cell. I had to go to the car, dig it out of the snow and we sat out there to charge the cell and watch the DVD player in the car while we got warm without having to work for it. End of day 2, I cooked some eggs on a skillet in the fireplace. Meanwhile, over-the-road trucker husband sat on a lounge at a pool in Miami 🙂
Glad you got your power back and that you got battery for your laptop.
Oh ick. NOT fun. We here in Central Ohio (though not me personally – our house was spared somehow) experienced power outages from Hurricane Ike tearing his happy way up here a couple weeks ago. Some people were out of power for up to 5-6 days. One girl I work with has 3 little ones and they had no power (but they did have water) for almost a week. I can’t even imagine. Lord, spare me. I’m glad your power came back on so “quickly.”
Having no power sucks. Glad you got it back. My roommate blew the power to our dorm the first day we moved in luckily it was fixed pretty quickly, it controlled our AC and it was a normal Texas Summer day, very hot.
Megans last blog post..Fun things I never want to do again
Blimey – glad it was all ok in the end. Living with a toddler with no heat, entertainment, hot food or water is not fun.
Barbaras last blog post..270/366 – Eye Spy
yay to charger..
sorry to hear your dad sucked.. 🙁
Tazs last blog post..48 Weeks Old
That sounds like a very suckful day.
Glad you have power again and Amy got her eggs.
Noah woud have been going off aboout his blessed shakey, not being warm.
See, I have to distinguish myself now, all these other Kats are popping up & commenting on the blogs I read.
WHAT a relief to get your power back. Sounds like a really bad day!!
KAT of Just Kat Stuffs last blog post..Writing
Hurricanes have knocked us out of power for a few days on end. I can totally relate. Only mine isnt a toddler and my hubby doesn’t help. He’s just as bad.
The soup sounds yummy!!
Jenn FLs last blog post..Twenty Percent
I’m with lceel, the minute that lotto win is in my hands I’m heading to Tassie with plumbing fixtures and a generator. Meantime ring those Aurora people and tell them very firmly that you have a toddler and a newborn, a tank water supply which relies on electric power and the next time the power goes out you need to be restored FIRST. Pity you don’t have a BBQ that’s wood or gas powered. BBQ’d eggs……….
Flashlight hide and seek – gotta play it next time. Keeps them busy for…30 minutes or so. Better still – make shadow puppets. Another 15-30 minutes killed.
Sorry that you had to live without power. We’ve sent people to the moon – you’d think we’d come up with a consistent power source that they would actually use!
Tonis last blog post..I’m Empty!!!
Yeah, they’re really good those power companies with the whole “we’ll fix it, just don’t rush us” crap.
Jaynes last blog post..Trivial History September 27
Oh that sucks! We’re really lucky to have a gas stove, and town water. That being said, there was a huge blackout across most of the province, and part of the States, when I was pregnant with the Princess, and I had to borrow a phone from the neighbours, because ours are all cordless and don’t work without power.
Oh – and it wouldn’t have done you much good in the daytime, but we keep a pack of those glow-in-the-dark bracelets (like you see at concerts, we get them at the dollar store) in with the candles. The kids love them, and they give off enough light for them to use as a nightlight, and get to the loo if necessary, when the power goes out after dark.
Badness Joness last blog post..Badness goes postal…
Yes. Been there, done that. Glad your outage didn’t last too long!
Leslies last blog post..It’s Pumpkin Picking Time!
Comments on this entry are closed.