Power Outage — Part II

February 26, 2010 — Still no power when I got up this morning. The house was cool, mid-60s, but tolerable. I have a gas stove, so I was able to make breakfast. I took a hot shower, but stepping out of the shower into 65-degree air is a shock. No TV or radio of course, but most of all I missed being able to read my email and the Boston Globe's online edition I subscribe to. I read the print edition of the New Hampshire Union Leader.

By 10 o'clock I was getting really antsy, so I grabbed my laptop and drove over to the Mall of New Hampahire where they have Wi-Fi throughout the mall. There I was able to check my email and read the entire Globe on the laptop. I killed some time walking around the mall, then had lunch at the food court.

I drove home after lunch, hoping that by now the power would be back on. No such luck. Temperature in the house was now 60, a bit uncomfortable. In spite of that, I spent about an hour reading. Then I decided to go to a movie. Many detours around the city due to downed trees, branches and wires. I would later learn about 85 streets in the city were closed.

After killing a couple of hours at the movies, I came home again. Power still off. House now downright cold. I was now facing the realization I wouldn't be able to sleep at home tonight if the power remained off. I went out to supper after which I returned to a house still without power. I had heard on my car radio that shelters were available, but sleeping with dozens of strangers was even less appealing than sleeping in a freezing house. I started calling motels and inns in the area, but all were either full or not answering.

Calls to the electric company now played a recording stating hundreds of thousands in southern New Hampshire were without power and it would take multiple days to restore. I called my sister and her husband, Pam and Roger, just across the line in Massachusetts and asked her if she had a sofa or a cot or even a chair I could sleep on if I came down. She did, so I threw a change of clothes and a toothbrush in a satchel and headed down there, where I spent a comfortable night.