cornerofmadness

Tuesday afternoon (after all the whee snow day excitement hit) the ice storm visited OH. My power began to flicker at midnight, have panic attacks that wake me up all night about losing power (which I haven’t had attacks like these in years) and was out when i woke up. Like I said, i have electric EVERYTHING. I called around. EVERY hotel was filled with waiting lists of over 100 people in some cases. I wasn't too worried until late afternoon when it was obvious this wasn't going to get fixed. I pull all of my fridge/freezer out into plastic totes and shove it on the porch (and tell me why all my ‘food’ in the freezer turned out to be shredded cheese packs. WTF) My car was mired in 4 inches of ice and even if i got it out where was i going to go. No hotels and no shelters. I thought hmmm well if I eat all the junk food in here I bet the ER will admit me to the hospital when my sugar freaks out. Hmmmm last resort there.

Well I called my secretary and they had power and her mom had a spare bedroom.I was going to go there when my landlord showed up with a heater (since my car wouldn't move). Well it turned out that it was a radiant heater for a mechanics garage which meant it is nothing but two ceramic heaters sitting on the same propane tank you see for gas grills. Oh well that felt safe. I was TERRIFIED of this thing but okay, I would have frozen without it. However, I’m like is this safe? I crack the window to vent the fumes then let the cats in with me until finally I gave up trying to read by candlelight. By now I’m nauseous and headachy. I’m sure this thing is pumping out carbon monoxide. I put the cats outside. it’s not that frigid and it was probably more humane than leaving them inside. They couldn’t handle the CO as well as someone my size and if they bumped that thing we’d all die in the resulting fire. Yeah colored me a little frightened at this point.

The thing wakes me at midnight making horrible noises. It’s going blue. I figure the thing is out of gas but now what? I call the non-emergency phone for the fire department (Thank you Gallipolis FD and pbttt to Jackson for never answering their phones) He told me what to do (and that no that huge puddle around it wasn’t leaking gas…) By the time I wake up I can see my breath. Well shit. I’m headachy and dizzy and nauseous, double shit, pretty sure I have mild CO poisoning.

Then my phone lines went out. Gah. Who knows how much charge is on the cell phone. Call mom. She calls hotels. Still screwed. I call the secretary. Still have power. I’m still welcome. I bring the cats in to eat. Roy never comes back. Well he does this so I’m not too worried. I pack. I load up the food outside for kitten. I get my car out. And go to Sec’s Mom’s house.

Have I said how wonderful the people I work with today are? They really are. They’d be the only thing I miss about leaving here. Sec’s family has always treated me like family. We had a really good time together and her cats wouldn’t leave me be. Called Mom to tell her I was safe and warm and she tells me my brother took some sort of vitamin form the place he always uses and had an adverse reaction and was hospitalized. Gah. He’s home now but still doesn’t feel well.

Woke up this morning still headachy and dizzy and nauseous. Gah. Call the landlord and find out the power is on but I don’t rush home. Sec’s Mom and I just sit around talking and stuff. Finally head out, my car slips on the ice and embeds in a snow bank. Grr. Shut the door and didn’t realize the seat beat didn’t retract (again) gouged the side panel’s upholstery hopelessly. Sand the ice. No dice. Sec’s mom has a 4-wheel drive truck. We call Sec’s son and he brings a rope. Rope breaks but I almost make it to the top. Gets stuck. Sec’s son tries, he gets stuck. Tie the remains of the rope to the car and make it free. WHEE

Get home. Roy’s still MIA. (and still is as of typing this but he does on occasion run off for days). Kitten in here and being bad. Call the vet and tell her I can’t make it tomorrow (because she has a long ass dirt road that I have no prayer of making up). It was supposed to snow today and didn’t (yay). Call mom. She’s on the phone with Blue Cross. Once again they keep saying Dad isn’t insured (he is). Found out brother is still sick. Found out grandma wanted to go see the snow and fell in her house. 93 years old and she knows she supposed to always have her walker (which has a phone in the basket) and refuses to use that life alert (it’s for old people). She dragged herself to the phone. She’s okay but bruised naturally.

But at least I’m home. I feel like hell but I’m home and warm. If I feel like this tomorrow I’ll go to urgent care. Hopefully Roy will be back by then. I’m regretting NOT taking my camera with me. Ice is the bitch but god is it beautiful. Today Sec’s Mom and I were on her screened in porch looking out at the cardinals eating seed and I said, ‘so we ready to move to FL?’ We both said at the same time, ‘nah, we’d rather have this than FL.’

So with over 48 hours of no power I don't think I'll be going back over all my flist (Heck I have 200 emails to go thru yet) so if you have something you want me to see TELL ME

also, i'll be slowly get back to everyone who was worried. THANK YOU. My dial up is very slow. I should be grateful to have it at all i'm sure.