Kindle and Facebook FWT! (Or, I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends.)

So, as those who follow me on Facebook already know, the big snowstorm that just flattened Virginia put me in a fix. I had come back to my hometown to help my mother recover from stomach surgery early last week, with her returning home on Wednesday ahead of the predicted snowpocalypse.

On Friday, the snow storm hits, and as the snow starts to pile up, we figure we are in the house for the duration. Car completely snowed in on driveway.

Friday night, the power goes out around 5 pm. The power company says it should be up in a few hours. The house is fairly warm, so we go to bed. Wake up in the morning, still no power, and now the house is about 45 degrees.

No worries! We have a fireplace, and Mom recently got some wood.  Start building a fire around 5 am, ex-Boy Scout that I am (I would say “former Boy Scout,” but their anti-gay policies forced me to renounce my membership in that homophobic tribe).

No go! Wood is waterlogged. Try to dry it out and get a fire going for the next 6 hours, but all I do is smolder some logs into charcoal.  Without power, I grab my Kindle to update my friends on Facebook about this comedy of errors. Power company says electricity to be restored by noon.

Go find some sterno, heat some food up for Mom, who is on a restricted diet while recovering. She seems to be doing ok, though cold and tired. Power company now says power will be restored by 5 pm. We decide to wait it out.

Find Coleman lantern, which will produce some heat (also, carbon monoxide. Kids, don’t try this at home!), run it until empty. Still below 50 degrees. 5 pm comes and goes. Power will now be restored at 10pm.

The night is starting to loom, and the house is bitterly cold. Heading towards 40 degrees. We huddle up for a long night. Cold, uncomfortable, and increasingly tired, we both sort of nod in and out all night.

Wake up at 4 am, house below 40 degrees, drinking water just making me colder. Mom looking exhausted. I decide that at daybreak, I will start digging out.  Mom’s limited mobility post-surgery was a factor in trying to wait out the storm, now it will be a major factor in getting her to the car.

Determine that the ever-lower temperature is not a good environment for asthmatic me to work in. Decide to go in house and call for help.

Phone service is down. Landline totally dead.

No worries! We have cell phones!

No go! Cell service down. ATT Wireless FAIL.

This was seriously starting to look grim. So cold (and, as it turned out, dehydrated), I find my problem-solving abilities are shot, breathing is starting to be increasingly difficult, and I’m running out of steam.

Think, think, think.

Say, doesn’t my Kindle run on a different data network? Say, Sprint?

It does! Turn on Kindle, post plea for help to Facebook. Hope that one of my hometown friends will be reading. Ask for a plow to help get us out to shelter.

The Z.’s, who are friends living up in D.C., see the post, and decide to call Albemarle County Emergency Services, who promptly dispatches someone to get us and take us to a hotel. (Matt and Tina Z. vault to the top of my “sure, you can have my kidney” list, and the fine people at Seminole Trail Fire Department are now forever in my heart. and I mean you, fireman Eric.)

40-odd hours after the power goes off, we are finally warm.

While a variety of decisions–some poor, some clueless, some too trusting–led us to get stuck as we were, the fast action of my friends is what made the difference. (Though I have been very dehydrated before–hello, 2000 Marine Corps Marathon!–I forgot how it impairs your thinking, and how unaware you are that you are impaired.)

On the technology side, Kindle and Facebook saved the day. Two thumbs up for the experimental web browser.

While my mom and I were not in mortal danger (I don’t think), we were in for a pretty rough go, and had we stayed put, the situation would have continued to deteriorate. Not a good environment for someone immediately post-surgery, or for anyone, really.

If there are some take-away lessons here (and everyone knows I love a teachable moment), surely the first is to be sure your emergency preparations are adequate. Had the woodpile been kept dry, heating a couple of rooms would have been quite doable. Second, don’t be slow to reach out for help. Earlier action could have spared us some suffering, and foolishly relying on power company restoration estimates meant we waited longer to act than was prudent. And finally, make sure you have back-up forms of communication, if possible.

As for me, now my emergency kit contains a Kindle.

*****

A post-script: Power continues to be out at my mom’s house, with power to be restored in a couple more days–during which time we will have another substantial snowfall. Even if the power company’s newest estimate is right, the power will have been out for over 100 hours in freezing temperatures, with some of those homes without phone service.

If that doesn’t make you want to double-check your emergency plans, then you are probably either my friend Wendi, who is ready for the Apocalypse, or my nephew Ian, who is ready for when the black helicopters come for him. You two are exempt from double-checking.